


Golden Opportunity, Silver Paradox

by SnowGivesMeVertigo



Series: Golden Opportunity [2]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Bad Wolf, Bonding, Episode AU: s02e13 Doomsday, Episode: s02e12 Army of Ghosts, Episode: s02e13 Doomsday, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Humor, Mild Smut, Mystery, Mystery Character(s), Puzzles, Romance, Run, Telepathic Bond, Telepathy, The Oncoming Storm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-27
Updated: 2015-08-27
Packaged: 2018-04-17 14:13:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 24,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4669625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnowGivesMeVertigo/pseuds/SnowGivesMeVertigo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Now Rose is glowing too! What is going on with her? Is there a future for Rose and her Doctor, and if so, at what cost? This is a sequel to 'Glaring Problem, Golden Opportunity'. More sexy/silly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Med Bay

**Author's Note:**

> This is is a sequel to 'Glaring Problem, Golden Opportunity'. I recommend that you read it before reading this one.
> 
> ***Disclaimer: I do not own these characters or anything else. This story is simply a fans interpretation.***

_The morning after, Rose opened her eyes to find the Doctor sitting beside her on the bed, and a tray of blueberry waffles with a steaming cup of tea on the nightstand._

_"Good morning, Sleepyhead."_

_She stretched and yawned. "Mmmmm... g'morning Ha_ _ndsome... Hey, where did you find the ingredients to make blueberry waffles? I couldn't find a single thing to make for dinner last night."_

_"I popped out to the shop while you were sleeping... 10 hours was a long time for me to try to stay in one place. I didn't think that you usually_   _need quite that much sleep."_

_"Well, it might have had something to do with the mind blowing shag I had last night." She knew that stroking his ego could be dangerous, but when it came to their lovemaking, he absolutely deserved the accolades._

_"Oh? And how mind blowing would you say it was, exactly?"_

_"Mmmm... I'm not sure I remember the precise amount in which my mind was blown... I might need a second sample for a proper analysis." She giggled and rolled back into the blankets. "Holy shit, I'm starting to sound like you."_

_When the Doctor leaned down to kiss her, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him on top of her. The couple shared a few lazy, wet kisses, as Rose dispelled the last remaining vestiges of sleep from her system. Memories of the night before clouded her waking mind with renewed desire. The Doctor was endlessly sexy._

_"Rose?"_

_"Hmmm?" She managed to get out while capturing his lips once more._

_"You're glowing."_

_"Well, I am pretty damn happy right now."_

_"No, I mean... You're physically glowing, faintly, but your abdomen is definitely brighter looking than it should be."_

_"Oh hey! Would'ya look at that. Is that some sort'a side-effect from what we did last night?"_

_"I really don't know. Not much precedent on the matter... Regardless, I think I would like to run some tests on you, in the Med Bay." He sounded so clinical._

_Such a bloody buzz kill, that was. But she could let it slide, the stars had finally aligned and allowed them to be together. They had all the time in the universe laid out before them, waiting for them to begin their adventure. The Doctor and Rose in the Tardis, as it should be. Besides, they could alway return to his room for the all important 'second sample' later._

_She blew out an exasperated sigh. "Fine... but not until after breakfast, yeah?"_

* * *

Rose sat on the edge of the cold exam table and watched the Doctor pacing back and forth. She had been sitting there for a good four hours now while he poked, prodded and pondered her. How could such a boring morning follow such an amazing night? She had made love to the Doctor once, only to spend the whole next day in the Med Bay. Already having used the time to paint her finger and toe nails, she was now mind numbingly bored. For a moment, she considered taking a nap on the hard table, but it would have been impossible with the Doctor's constant muttering.

"It doesn't make any sense. All my tests indicate that you are at least 99.7% human… Human DNA… Human reproductive system… Human heart and organs… I don't understand how you could have been glowing this morning... The only thing I can think of is that you had some sort of chemical reaction with my… uh... semen… as it were… You weren't in any sort of pain or anything were you?"

" _Agony_  maybe, but not pain."

"Clever... cheeky, but clever… Well, I guess that rules out a detrimental allergic reaction. Could it be a different type of autoimmune response? It just seems too ironic, too coincidental that it looks so much like Gallifreyan arousal bioluminescence… Don't you agree?"

"I don't know any more, Doctor… but the important thing is that it didn't cause any damage to my system, yeah?"

"Right… no, you're healthy as a horse. Not that I would ever call you a horse. Odd expression, that… Are horses really any healthier than any other mammal? Perhaps I should take a tissue sample from the next horse I meet... Oh! Funny story, the Tardis had a stable for a while."

"Doctor, you're rambling… Can we get out of here yet? I mean, unless you're going to wank into a test-tube so that you have a sample to test your chemical reaction theory with, I'd say there's not much else we can possibly do in here right now."

Rose already knew that suggestion was beneath him, but she loved watching him react to statements like that. Without fail, the Doctor scrunched up his nose dramatically. "Wank into a test-tube? Not likely."

"Didn't think so..." She said as she slid off of the table, ready to finally leave.

Blocking her way out the door, he continued: "There's got to be something else going on. Have you been experiencing any other strange symptoms?" He was not going to drop this, was he?

"Nope... Oh, hang on! Now that I think about it, I have been meaning to ask you about the Tardis."

"What about her?" He raised one eyebrow.

"How much should I be able to feel her in my mind? Like, how much did your other human companions understand her?"

"I suppose that would vary from person to person. Lots of variables there: Length of exposure, natural perceptive tendencies, empathetic mindset, and how much the Tardis likes the individual... Generally speaking, her moods and humming could theoretically be discernible by anyone that had spent a decent amount of time on board."

"Should I be able to give her specific requests?"

"Perhaps, the ship is probably more tuned into your mind than the other way around... I figured that was how you got her to take us to Cardiff. She does like you an awful lot by the way."

"Should I be able to understand her responses to my questions clearly? Or be able to have her help me clear my mind to sleep?"

"Er... No, I don't think so... Can you?"

"Yeah. I've been able to understand her responses for sometime now. At first it was just moods like you said, but lately I can practically carry on a conversation with her."

"Is that true?" He demanded of the ceiling, accusingly. "And if so, you should have told me!"

Humming brightly, the Tardis confirmed what she had said. Rose even began to giggle when she felt the equivalent of the ship sticking her tongue out at the Doctor. To retort, he stuck his tongue out at the ceiling, and began mumbling. "Sometimes I think the Tardis likes you more than me... Ungrateful, incorrigible, meddling.."

"I can't help that we get along so well, she's fantastic!"

"Hmmm... You might have always had a mild predisposition for telepathy, which might have been nurtured during your time with us. Perhaps with help from our fantastic, sentient  _tin can_  here." The door to one of the nearby cabinets flew open and smacked the Doctor in the shoulder. "Oww!" He rubbed his arm with his other hand, feigning injury.

Again, Rose giggled. "Even so, I am done with tests for today. My back is sore from sitting on this blasted table for so long." She stretched her back and grimaced at the cracking sound it made.

" _Awwww_  please, just let me give your brain a quick CTscan to check for markers of telepathy."

"Doctor!"

"Fine...  _Ooooo_ , can I check the state of your mind the old fashioned way?" His expression went from disappointment to utter exuberance in a half second flat.

"You mean, go into my head?"

"Yeah, but I won't look at anything you don't want me to see. Promise!" He was bouncing up and down with all the innocent eagerness of a child expecting a new toy.

"Oh, alright... But only because you're giving me the most adorable big brown puppy eyes... And not in the Med Bay." She said, smacking him on the shoulder where the cabinet door had just hit him. With that, she left the room.

"Oww! No fair ganging up on me."


	2. Zuul

One would think that a Time Lord would have endless patience, and maybe he had at one point, but this tenth body of his did not. Getting to feel Rose's mind through a parallel connection was something he had never thought possible. He had hoped to be able to experience a mild mental connection with her, using his own telepathy as a conduit. But if she really did have her own capabilities, they could achieve so much more connecting in tandem. The depth of their intimacy could grow exponentially. The Doctor couldn't wait. If Rose weren't currently in the Tardis, he might have even considered using it to fast forward to that evening, when she was ready to try.

He wasn't sure how far they would be able to go into each other's minds. Frankly, he was terrified of bearing his entire soul to her, if she indeed had the necessary abilities to access it. He had too many dark places in the corners of his memories that he wasn't ready to share; Afraid that his complicated past might frighten her away. But the likelihood that her human mind would be able to handle that strong of a connection was minimal. So, he ignored that flicker of concern, and focused on his excitement. His Rose was telepathic!  _Brilliant!_ Besides, they wouldn't go that far on this first attempt.

That evening, the two of them sat on his bed to try the experiment. They faced one another with their legs crossed, knees barely touching. Rose was brave and beautiful as always, in her tee shirt and jeans. It was incredible how she could face the unknown without trepidation, putting complete trust in him. She really was a rare creature, so disarming too. He cared about her so much it hurt.

"This will feel strange at first, but it's alright to lean on the presence of the Tardis for mental support if you need it. She is here to help facilitate this." Rose nodded and smiled. Could she be as thrilled as he was? He couldn't tell. "You are going to have to open your mind... Willingly accept me in, for this to work."

"I'm ready, Doctor. I trust you."

"I trust you too." Smiling back at her, he realized that he really did trust her not to hurt him. It was a level of confidence that he rarely felt with another person. "Close your eyes, relax... I want you to clear your mind as much as you can... Now I want you to envision your safe place. The place you would go as a child, where nothing could ever get to you. The place you went when you were scared or upset... For me, it was a little nook in one of the libraries in Arcadia, that no one else seemed to know about. I would curl up in the corner there and read for hours."

The Doctor straightened his sleeves and slowly leaned toward his meditating companion. Gently, he placed his fingers on her temples and brushed against her mind. She didn't flinch, interesting. He closed his own eyes and put a bit more pressure on the walls of her consciousness. Rose began to tense up a little, and she shifted her sitting position.

"Are you still doing alright? Try to keep calm, I won't hurt you."

"Yes... I know you would never hurt me." She whispered. The Doctor sincerely hoped that he never would.

"Remember... Safe place... I will join you there momentarily..."

Exhaling softly, Rose relented access to her mind. The Doctor found himself in a very familiar location. Cream colored walls, plush wool carpet, a dark wood bureau and bed adorned with a fluffy pink duvet... He and Rose were seated on the bed in much the same way that they were physically seated on his...

One of Rose's eyes opened for a second before closing tight again. "Did it work?"

"You tell me... Were you imagining your own room aboard the Tardis?"

She opened her eyes and looked around, taking in the comfortable surroundings. "Yes."

"I was expecting to find myself under the stairs of the Estates, or in Jackie's closet on top of her shoes, or something."

"I... I never really had a safe place growing up. Things were always changing. One week I would be staying with my grandparents while mum ran off somewhere... The next, I would spend with Mickey because mum couldn't get out of bed... The next week, my mum would hold me tight on the sofa while she cried and watched soap operas... She's better now, but she was fighting severe depression when I was a kid... The Tardis is really the first consistent safe place I've had."

"I'm sorry Rose... I didn't know."

"S'ok, my childhood wasn't bad or anything...It was just a bit unorthodox... I knew my mum loved me, which is more than some could say. So many people have it worse than I ever did..."

"Thank you for sharing with me, all the same."

"If you're going to be snooping around my mind, you'll know all my secrets soon enough anyway, yeah?"

"Oh, that reminds me. If there is anything you don't want me to see, just imagine putting those memories into a room with a locked door. I promise, I won't try to force access to those areas... I know this process can feel a bit invasive." It might feel invasive and uncomfortable for her, but he was reveling in the love and appreciation surrounding him in her mind... It was addictive.

"Locked rooms, got it."

"Now, I'm going to walk around a little to see if we can either figure out why you are telepathic, or at least how telepathic you are."

"Ok."

"Since you imagined us in the Tardis, we may as well build upon the analogy... Outside the door to this room, I want you to imagine the console room. Except instead of various systems to facilitate travel in time and space, visualize that the systems represent the inner workings of your mind. The center console of your thoughts... A bit vague I know but does that make sense?"

"I think so, but I'm not really sure how my mind works exactly."

"It's an age old problem, trying to comprehend your brain using your brain... That's ok... Just try your best. If this doesn't give us what we need, we can always try something else."

The Doctor walked to the door of the bedroom and it opened for him. The next area was indeed the console room, but decorated in a way that spoke of Rose. The roundels on the walls were transformed into large white flowers. The grating on the floor was woven like a basket, and swooped up to form the base of the center console. Thankfully the time rotor was not an obnoxious pink, but instead pulsed with silvery sparkles. Above them, the ceiling was open to a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. Most surprisingly of all, however, was the organization she displayed. There was very little clutter anywhere.

He set to work, investigating the various switches and button on the console. Rose had labeled them all eloquently.  _If only his real console was this organized._  The issue turned out to be that everything was too organized. He had expected to find some insecurity or anatomy that pointed to the cause of her telepathy, but nothing seemed out of place. The Doctor wasn't even sure if his mind was this tidy, then again, he had several centuries of baggage as opposed to her twenty years.

Looking back toward the doorway, the Doctor saw Rose admiring her own creation. "This is incredible." She sighed.

"You're an incredible person Rose Tyler... But unfortunately, I don't think we are going to find what we are looking for in here... Can you imagine instead, a hallway filled with doors... Each door leading to a part of you. Remember to keep the private ones locked."

Rose turned and wandered down a newly formed corridor at the back of the 'console room', the Doctor followed. The walls of the hallway were a strange wood paneling system. The wood grain was golden and smelled of time. He began to wonder how much Bad Wolf had affected her mind. Could this be her doing? Did Bad Wolf give Rose telepathy?

Before the Doctor had a chance to poke his head into any of the doors, he noticed that one of the wall panels had 'Bad Wolf' spray painted on it in thick red letters. He walked up close to the wall and touched the paint. The panel creaked open to reveal a secret room.

"Rose, I think this might be what we're looking for!" He glanced back down the hall where she had been walking a moment ago, but she had vanished. "I know you can still hear me, Rose. I am going to investigate this area alright?"

There was no answer, but the Doctor didn't feel any resistance. He stepped inside the room, and the wall panel closed behind him. It was pitch black.

"Rose?"

Somewhere in the room a match was struck and a candle lit. "We have been expecting you Doctor, son of Gallifrey, last of the Time Lords."

"Rose, is that you?"

"There is no Rose, only Zuul."

"Right, yeah... And I am the keymaster. I swear Rose, if this is some kind of joke..."

"Odd, the one that you call Rose left us that phrase believing that it would alleviate some of your stress in this situation. Instead, we see that it has only agitated you further. It has failed to achieve its desired effect." The candle bearer approached him, and he was able to make out that it was Rose, or at least some version of Rose. Her eyes were golden and distant.

"So if I am not talking to Rose, or Zuul… Can I presume that I am speaking to Bad Wolf?"

"Once we were called Bad Wolf."

"You shouldn't be here. I extracted you from Rose's mind."

"Our active presence was erased; We are merely an echo… An echo left behind to convey a message."

"Does Rose know you are here?"

"No, we were cut off from the rest of her consciousness when you removed the Time Vortex."

"Alright then, I'll take the bait… Tell me your message."

"When the Vortex possessed us, we were given a vision of all time lines… for all beings… past, present, and future. However, the part of us that was Rose, wept when she glimpsed her own time lines."

"Why did she weep?"

"The timelines intertwined with your own came to an abrupt, frayed ending. While it was not a fixed point in time, all versions of her life that included you came to that same conclusion."

"What end? What conclusion?" This had to have been a mistake... Maybe a trick created by some nemesis; something planted in her subconscious to upset him. By the beast? No, the beast probably wouldn't have seen Ghostbusters. By the Master?

"That information has not been preserved in this echo. What we do know, is that Bad Wolf heard her plea and created a semi-stable paradox in an effort to circumvent that otherwise inevitable ending."

The Doctor was still suspicious. He would never let Rose die, if he still had air in his lungs. The time lines could have easily changed again since this echo was isolated. They change constantly.  _Even Bad Wolf couldn't know everything for sure, could she?_  "What is the paradox?"

"We do not have that information. The message we were meant to convey is simply this: the paradox has not yet been completed. It is up to you to finish it. In the same manner in which you give so many others the choice for their future, so a choice has been given to you… This silver box contains the missing piece of the paradox. If you wish to continue your life with Rose, open it. If the sanctity of undisrupted time is what you desire more, leave it closed. Rose will know nothing of this box or your decision, should you make one… Bad Wolf left it up to you."

The silvery box helped illuminate some of the darkness of the room, but he still could not make out any walls. The simple six sided vessel presented to him was no bigger than a box of tea. It was plain, except for the light it was casting. There were no apparent clues as to its contents.

"Huh… Clever." He couldn't let himself cave in that easily to his emotions, every paradox comes at a price. He still needed more data in order to make an informed decision. "Wait, do you know what caused her to become telepathic?"

"That information has not been preserved… only the choice remains."

Maybe he could try coersion to gain information. "Rose would have known that I would never intentionally alter the course of time."

"Your choice has been made then?"

"Whoa, hang on! I didn't say that!" On the off chance that Bad Wolf really had planted this paradox, he wasn't ready to discard it just yet. "I've always loved a good mystery box… You can either have this fabulous car, or trade it all for what's in the  _mystery box!_  … How stable is semi-stable anyway? Let me guess, that information has not been preserved…"

"We do not understand your response."

"Yeesh, I see why Rose gave you that joke… No fun whatsoever, you are."

"Find us again when you have made your decision, Time Lord."


	3. The Storm & The Aftermath

"Are you alright?" The Doctor asked, after carefully retreating from Rose's mind.

"Yeah, s' just some weird pressure in my head… Sorta tired... Where did you go in there anyway? One minute you were walking with me, the next you were gone. But I could still feel your presence in there somewhere."

"I met what remains of Bad Wolf in your subconscious."

"Oh! That's a good thing right? Was she able to tell you why I'm telepathic 'n glow-y?"

"Supposedly, the part of her that was left did 'not have that information preserved'. It was a very strange presence that claimed to be no more than a memory of Bad Wolf. An echo. Which is definitely a good thing; if your mind were still trying to hold on to all of Bad Wolf, it would have been severely injured."

"Well then, what did she say?"

"That I needed to make a choice, but that is neither here nor there… she said nothing that helps us with our current conundrum… If you're tired, why don't you lay down? This sort of thing can be mentally taxing until you get used to it."

He wasn't quite ready to tell her about the 'box'; afraid that she might try to tear down important barriers in her mind, desperate to gain access to it. Especially, if she thought for an instant that she and the Doctor might lose each other. If it was true, Bad Wolf had been wise to give the choice to him. Rose's loyalty to the Doctor would have immediately gotten the best of her. He could be more rational than she could when it came to emotionally charged issues. Even so, imagining Rose's time line ending abruptly like that caused him to shudder involuntarily. He had finally allowed himself to indulge in loving her, and now he was confronted with the possibility of her demise not even 12 hours later… Even Murphy's Law wasn't usually that on point.

On one hand, he was certain that some force in the universe didn't want him to be happy, and maybe just maybe, Bad Wolf was trying to override that seemingly eternal constant. On the other hand, someone might have been tinkering with Rose's subconscious, using her under developed and under protected telepathy against her. In which case, the box could be even more dangerous than a paradox. He had to get to the bottom of this before any decisions could be made.

...

Over the next week, the Doctor went into Rose's mind several more times under the pretence of testing the boundaries of her telepathy. To some extent, he was doing just that, but he was also looking for any signs of forced entry or foul play.

She really was more gifted than any other human he had met, more than some Gallifreyans, to be honest. The clarity of their connection grew stronger each time they tried. And each time they tried, the Doctor would catch a glimpse of something with the words 'Bad Wolf' spray painted on it. He tried his best to ignore the red lettering, but the temptation of the paradox called to him. To take his mind off the words, he taught Rose how to protect her thoughts and emotions from other telepathic species. He taught her how to erect barriers, and how to allow or disallow access through them.

During the day they would have adventures, but every evening they returned to her mind...  _With some exceptional shagging thrown in too, of course_... She had showed him beautiful memories of summer in the countryside around London, proud memories of gymnastics competitions, not so proud memories of dropping out of school... She showed him her hopes and dreams,  _and some rather compelling fantasies involving him and the sonic screwdriver_. All of which, he committed to his own memory for later use...

With each thought she showed him, he felt closer to the little pink and yellow human. Her mind was so warm and inviting, surrounding him with love and rejuvenating his weary soul. It was addictive, he couldn't get enough of her. Every moment their minds were separated, he felt empty and lost. The Time Lord knew he was falling irreversibly in love with her, (it frightened him) but he was unable to pull away now. Now that he had seen and felt the compassion in her mind, seen and felt her body against his, seen and felt his Rose so completely, he was incapable of denying his feelings any longer. The Doctor had to tell her...  _Cowardice or not... Paradox or not..._

"You ok Doctor? You were flipping through that book, and then suddenly you stopped and zoned out."

"Hmmmm? Yes, fine... Just thinking." He looked down at his forgotten study material: a large volume on the effect of paradoxes on reality, written in traditional Gallifreyan.

"Fine? You were mumbling something about a paradox... Aren't those bad?"

More like inevitable, he thought to himself. "No, no...no I was just wondering what happened to my 'pair of Docs'. You remember the big Doc Martin boots my last body was so fond of, have you seen them around lately? This book talks about some... Uh... muddy hiking spots in the Varrshickle Quadrant."

"Uh huh... Even if I did believe you, I couldn't help. Haven't seen your boots in months… But I was thinking, can I try going into your mind tonight? You've only gone into mine so far."

" _My mind?_ " He squeaked. There was no way he could hide his feeling for her if she were in his head. He wasn't ready for that yet, there was so much they needed to talk about first. There was also the very real chance of him accidently betraying the details of Bad Wolf's proposed paradox, since it had been consuming his thoughts from the moment he first learned about it.  _Worse than that, the dark recesses of his past might_... "You mean… my… You want to? Like being inside of my thoughts and memories? Why would you want that? My mind is filled with all the clutter, and disappointment, and sorrow of living for 900 years… A lot of boring memorized statistics and facts too… Oh and the time war! That war is still raging in my mind, you don't want to get involved in that do you? Very unpleasant."

"Doctor, you know I won't judge you for your past. I just want to get to know you better, the way you've gotten to know me. I think that I can handle seeing your big handsome Time Lord mind, thanks to the expert telepathy guidance you've given me." Batting her thick eyelashes up at him, she ran her fingers up his tie and along his cheek to his temple. Rose was using flattery against him, no fair.

"Ok… but give me a little time to tidy up my thoughts." His fingers raked nervously through his tousled brown hair. "It's been a long time since I've had visitors."

"Alright then, after supper?"

"Yep." He popped the 'p' so she wouldn't hear his apprehension. _Shit… shit... shit…_

…

There they were, sitting on the Doctor's bed again, knees touching. Rose looked deep into the Doctors effervescent brown eyes. Eyes that could change from being jaded from all that he'd seen, to childlike wonder, in less than an instant. Eyes that currently expressed vulnerability. She realized the magnitude of trust he had to have it her to allow this to happen. He had seen civilizations rise and fall, worlds built and destroyed, the past and the future… No doubt that some people would kill to know what he knows.

"If you'd rather not do this, I understand."

"I want to share this with you. If I didn't, I wouldn't be here… But before we start, there's something I need to tell you..."

"Yes?"

"I Lov…." He cleared his throat. "I love spending the evenings like this, with you I mean. There is no place else I would rather be."

The tense muscles in his body relaxed when she kissed him lightly. His hands reached for both of hers and squeezed tightly. With his left hand, he pulled her right one up to the side of his face. His eyes reopened and he leaned his forehead against hers. The very slight nod he made, was the permission she needed to start.

Rose closed her eyes and focused on the feeling of his cool skin against her finger tips. The way his cheek was cupped in her hand, put her middle finger right at his temple. She imagined caressing his mind the way she was caressing his cheek. She imagined her essence traveling down her arm, through her fingertips and into him, her dear Doctor. There was small jolt of electricity, a shock, when she passed through the barrier into his consciousness.

Upon opening her eyes, she found herself seated in a haze of copper colored grass, looking down at her folded knees. Perched on her knee, there was an unusual bug that looked similar to a firefly, in that it glowed brightly. Its antennae twitched, it hopped up into the air and started to fly away. Rose followed it's lazy trail with her eyes until they met with the Doctor sitting in front of her. The area was dimly lit, but she could still make out his wide warm smile. Waves of affection washed over her, radiating from him.

A soft breeze blew past them and made the copper-y grass rustle, it sounded like music. Several more fireflies flew by in an strange formation, and then more. Looking around, Rose saw that the dark indigo sky was filled with them, thousands of them… floating around in clusters…  _constellations?_

"I thought we were going to be in a library nook?"

"The safe place thing is helpful for beginners, but I have been telepathic for centuries." He winked at her. The way his speech reverberated in his mind added another layer of depth to his already resplendent tenor voice. It was as though she heard multiple voices speaking through him at once.

"What is this place then?"

"It's not a real place exactly, but the color of the grass comes from Gallifrey. This is the way I sometimes like to imagine the stars and planets I've visited."

"The fireflies represent stars?"

"The one that landed on you is symbolic of Sol, your yellow sun. One of my personal favorites."

"This is incredible. I can't believe you have been to this many different star systems."

"I frequent some more than others, as you know." He took her hand and gave her a look that made her heart choke up into her throat. His brown eyes shown ice blue for an instant. When he kissed the back of her wrist, she felt lightheaded. The way his mind surrounded hers so perfectly made her dizzy... Unspoken words and promises swirled around her like the fireflies in the air.

All of a sudden the Doctor stood up turned his attention to the horizon beyond. He cocked his head to one side, and his expression steeled. Another gust of wind blew past, with more of a chill in it this time. The human girl shivered.

"You need to leave my mind Rose."

"What? No, I just got here." She protested.

"I had hoped I could stave off the storm for longer, but it doesn't appear that way. This is what I was afraid would happen. I can't force you out without hurting you, so please... Withdraw yourself."

Just then, a bright streak of lightning flashed in the distance. Rose stood up next to the Doctor, and was hit with a fierce cold gale that blew away most of the fireflies. His coat tails flapped loudly behind them. Thunder crashed and shook her down to the very bone. Ominous black clouds were gathering in the distance.

"What is that?"

" _The Oncoming Storm._ You're not safe here."

He grabbed her hand and started running in the opposite direction. Of course there would be running in his mind too, she thought. They ran through the field in a daze. Scenes and places from his memory raced past them. Rose could swear she saw the Paliament building and the London Eye, but everything was so surreal it was hard to tell. It was like an evolving dreamscape, landmarks materialized and dematerialized quickly.

They ran until they entered a cold cavern, with strange metal compartments tiered upward to the ceiling. She could hear ominous pounding inside each of the compartments.

"What is this place?" Rose asked, catching her breath.

"The Tomb of the Cybermen… We can't stop here."

The wind howled at the entrance to the cave as the storm approached. The Doctor looked back at the storm nipping at their heels, before pulling her along by the hand once more. The companions continued to run deeper into the tomb until they emerged out into a shimmering city, inside of a giant gilded 'snowglobe'. The light reflecting off the orb nearly blinded Rose, after the darkness of the cavern. She shielded her eyes until they adjusted.

"Where are we now?"

"The Citidel." He murmured under his breath, detached.

"Are we safe here Doctor?...  _Doctor?_ "

He was staring out of the dome at the swirling black clouds, terror stricken. Rose worried that he was losing the grasp on his sanity. The madness had always been lurking at the edges of his personality was taking over. A tremendous explosion shook the golden city around them. Crying children came running down the streets to escape the battle. Another crash knocked some of them to the ground, screaming. The buildings around them began to crumble and fall. She could hear the dalek's battle cry over the cacophony of destruction.

"The sky trenches are failing, Rose…  _Run!_ "

He led her through the dark streets and alleys, mumbling something about a repair shop. An armored door in front of them had been blown off of its hinges. The Doctor pulled her inside without hesitation. Down past a row of metallic cylinders they hurried until he stopped in front of one of them. Looking over his shoulder, he quickly punched a code into the keypad on the cylinder and a door slid open.

Once inside Rose immediately recognized the Tardis. The interior was different and dated, but she knew in her heart that it was the same ship. The panicked Time Lord slammed the door, rushed to the console, and began trying to take them away from the Time War in his mind. It pained her to see him so afraid of his own memories.

"Doctor, the daleks can't hurt us, we're in your mind…. This is just a memory."

"It's not the daleks I'm afraid of Rose."

She regarded him with profound concern. "Well, I am not afraid... Not of you."

Opening the Tardis door, Rose stepped out onto the same copper grass field where they had started. The sky was pitch black now and the wind whipped her hair across her face. A thundering cyclone was barreling straight for her, but she stood firm.

" _Rose!_  No!"

The Doctor tackled her from behind and held her down against the ground as the storm hit, shielding her from the brunt of the force. But the crippling torrent of emotions ripped at her just the same. Guilt, anguish, loneliness, anger, depression, and fear tore through her. Flashing images of the devastation the Doctor had wrought and witnessed, broke her heart. Nine hundred years of grief and loss compressed into mere moments, pressed down on them. Tears spilled from her eyes as the Doctor whispered in her ear.

"I'm so sorry Rose… I knew this was a bad idea… please forgive me… I thought I could control it… I'm so sorry… My sweet brave Rose." He was crying too.

_Humans, draconians, ood, cybermen, sontarans, daleks, Time Lords... Romana, Sarah Jane, the Master, Jamie, Captain Jack, Grace, Peri, Mickey... A patchwork coat, a leather jacket, a scarf, a cravat... A golden opportunity and a silver paradox... All of the people he had saved and all the ones he couldn't... Life and death across the galaxies._

Eventually, after several drawn out moments of torture, the winds started to die down. Slower and slower, as if the storm had run out of emotions to throw at them. Rose took a deep breath, and opened her watery eyes. Dew drops clinging to the copper grass sparkled in the emerging sun.

The storm was diminishing, but the Doctor was still crying and holding her desperately tight. She wasn't sure what else to do, so she sat up and held him back. Her perfect broken man that held up the integrity of the universe in spite of his own flaws. This man who had given everything and allowed himself nothing; nothing save for the guilt of those he couldn't help.

"Doctor?"

"I never meant to subject you to that. It is my burden to bear, and mine alone. I understand if you no longer want to be with me, now that you know what I've done... I only ask that you find it in your heart to forgive me someday."

Rose nuzzled his tear stained cheek. She couldn't tolerate the thought of him suffering alone any longer. "There is nothing to forgive. I love you now more than ever. Thank you for sharing your past with me... You are so strong to have carried this on your own for so long... Let me carry it with you."

He burried his face in her hair. "Rose, please never leave me... I don't think I can endure losing you... I can't be alone anymore." The words were drawn out of the desolation and sorrow she had just witnessed.

"There is no force in time or space that can keep me from you... I told you, you have my forever... I am never leaving your side."

"I love you Rose Tyler, more than you will ever know."

...

When her presence in his mind had receded, the Doctor awoke to find them tangled in each other's arms on his bed. Rose was exhausted from the battering his mind had given her. Yet she had been steadfast and brave by his side until they had weathered the storm together. He didn't deserve her. He didn't deserve her forgiveness either, but he felt vindicated all the same.

The Doctor had to find away to keep her. Rose would do anything for him, risk everything for him. He knew now that he would do the same for her. All that he was was hers. All that he would ever be should be hers as well.

_Rassilon, if this human girl is my undoing, so be it._

She had already fallen asleep next to him. The Doctor entered her unconscious mind... and opened the silver box.

...

The Doctor slept fitfully, even though the storm of emotions in his mind had been temporarily quelled.  _Something wasn't right._  He woke up abruptly; his ship was blaring a mauve alert directly into his mind. He fumbled in the dark to find Rose on the bed next to him, only to discover that he was alone. How long had he been asleep? How long had she been gone? He got dressed hastily and hurried into the console room to look for her.

"Rose? Is everything alright? Where are you?"

A panicked Tardis brought up a video playback of Rose on one of the screens. She was expertly flicking levers and throttles on the console…  _with her eyes closed_... What the heck? How was that possible? The box? Bad Wolf? Where had she taken them? They weren't in the time stream any longer... A quick glance at the monitor:  _Norway?_  Why would she take us to Norway?... Desperately the Tardis screamed in his mind, imploring him to go find her immediately. Figuring out how this has happened could wait, Rose could not. The ship was pleading with him, gravely concerned for her life. Rose was in serious danger.  _FIND HER NOW!_ When it finally sunk in what the ship was trying to say to him, all the blood drained out of his face in a fear that bordered on hysteria.

The Doctor threw open the door of the Tardis and ran out onto the cold beach. Even though he had never been there before, something eerily familiar about the location caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand up. He searched frantically up and down the rocky shoreline, trying to outrun the fear and the feeling that this was his fault. In the distance, he spotted a humanoid body curled into a ball at the transition where the water lapped at the sand. The Doctor broke into a full sprint toward the huddled mass.

Thank Rassilon, it was Rose! Her clothing was soaking wet and was being drawn back and forth by the motion of the waves. He scooped up her shivering unconscious body, and pulled her in close to his chest. Her skin was pale and freezing to the touch, it was a miracle that hypothermia hadn't already claimed her life. As he raced back to the Tardis with her in his arms, he sonic-ed her clothes dry as best he could without dropping her.  _Please don't let me lose her,_  he prayed to whomever might be listening…  _Please, universe, if I never ask for anything again in my life, please don't let me lose Rose Tyler…_

The silver box had been a trap… How could he have been so stupid, so selfish as to open it?  _Bloody sentimental fool._  Hot tears blurred his vision, making the Tardis appear further away than it actually was.

"Please Rose… Hold on..."


	4. Silver Paradox

The Tardis was abuzz with concern, when the Doctor re-entered carrying Rose. A warming table with heated blankets and warm IV fluids had been placed in the console room while he had been out retrieving her. They really must have a strong connection, if the Tardis knew exactly what she was suffering from even though she was outside of her protective walls.

"Fantastic ship! Thank you, thank you,  _thank you!_ " He called out.

The Doctor peeled the clothing off of her until she was left in her vest top and knickers. He had already sonic-ed everything dry, but the more skin contact she could have with the specialized warming table, the better. The temperature of the table had to be just right in order to reverse the effects of hypothermia. It had to be warm enough to bring her temperature back up, but not so hot as to shock her system. If his internal temperature weren't so much colder than hers, he would have held her skin to skin to help the process. Instead, he occupied himself hooking up the warm IV system and monitoring her vitals, to keep from going mad with guilt. This never should have happened, he never should have opened that damned box. Life with him put her in danger far too often.

When her vitals stabilized he pulled a chair over to the warming table and sat next to his beloved companion. Allowing himself to breath again, he assured himself that she would wake soon and that there was nothing more he could do for the time being. The only thing he could do was hold her hand. But when he reached for the aforementioned hand, he discovered that it was balled up into white knuckled fist, like she was holding onto something for dear life. Strange that she should be holding something so tightly while unconscious. He gently pried one of her fingers back and caught a glint from a tarnished piece of metal.

"Well hello… What are you now?" The Doctor put on his glasses and carefully extracted the short silver chain from her clutch. He raised his eyebrows to inspect it. "Aren't you a pretty thing."

He set to work painstakingly cleaning away the sand and tarnish, it was a time consuming process due to the intricacy of the chain. The more he cleaned, the more amazed he became. This really was a peculiar find. It's delicate links were made of various symbols from the circular Gallifreyan language, interlocking and twining around and through each other. There wasn't any specific order to the words nor a specific phrase it spelled out, but depending on how it was turned or coiled, it could say any number of things. The Doctor was entranced watching it spin and twist, as he dangled the object from his fingers. The way the light caught the links just then, it seemed to read: _Have I been found?_

"That's interesting."

More interesting than that however, was the time signature integrated into its construction. It pulsed with time, not just any time, but a personalized time signature... Could it be an External Rassilon Imprimatur Containment System? If he weren't holding one in his hand, he would have sworn that they were nothing more than an elaborate myth propagated by idealistic wannabe time travelers. No non-Gallifreyan could ever hope to make one, and no Gallifreyan would ever have a use for one... Peculiar indeed. The symbols in the chain continued twisting, and for an instant they read:  _Then why am I here?_

"Creepy." The Doctor said out loud, furrowing his eyebrows and setting down the chain.

"Mmmmh... What's creepy now?" His blonde patient remained horizontal on the bed, but her eyes were partially open and she was rubbing her forehead.

"Rose! You're awake!" Bounding over to her, the Doctor pulled her up into a tight embrace. "I thought I'd lost you."

"Wha... What happened?" She was still more than a little groggy.

"I did a foolish thing Rose."

After sitting up slowly and wrapping her arms around herself, she said. "Lemme guess... You finally gave into that weird paradox thing you've been obsessing about, and something happened to me as a result?"

"How did you..."

"I'm not daft, Doctor. You've been mumbling about it in your sleep, when you're distracted, when you think I'm not listening... Plus, I was in your head last night remember? I saw your interaction with Bad Wolf."

"Oh, right, that..." The box was probably one of the first memories she had seen in his storm, since it had been at the forefront of the emotional part of his mind.

"S'ok... Don't worry about it. I was going to ask you about it this morning, but I guess that's a moot point now, huh?... What I meant was, what happened to me after you opened the box?"

"Nothing at first, you were asleep. A few hours later I woke up, and you were gone. The Tardis then informed me that you had flown her to 21st century Norway, with your eyes closed."

"That is creepy."

"No... Well yes, it was, a bit... But the creepy thing is actually this chain that I found held in your hand... You were in the cold water of a Norwegian beach suffering from moderate hypothermia when I got to you. Luckily I was able to get you warm and dry before anything worse had happened."

"And I had that chain in my hand?"

"In a death grip... Curious trinket, you found here."

"Pretty. It looks like the writing I see around the Tardis."

"Precisely. The links are in the shape of Gallifreyan letters... But more than that, it appears to be an External Rassilon Imprimatur Containment System... See the pulsing energy running through it?"

"In English please, Doctor."

"Right, well prolonged time travel puts unnatural stresses on the brain cell biology of any creature. Time Lords have a symbiotic nucleus in their cell structure that allows them to withstand these stresses for centuries. That phenomenon is referred to as a Rassilon Imprimatur... Coincidently, it is also necessary for a cerebral link to a Tardis machine."

"And the external containment system part means that this chain would allow someone to travel in space for centuries with being born with that Rassilon Impromptu whatever, yeah?"

"Brilliant as always, my Rose."

"So should keep this thing, would it help me travel with you long term?"

"Not exactly. You see, this sort of device is bound exclusively to its maker. It can only ever hold one time stream, and the energy you see in it shows that it already is maintaining one. Whomever made this chain is tied to it forever, and is probably having serious withdrawals without it."

"Oh..." She sounded slightly disappointed, but added: "I suppose we should find who ever lost it then, n' give it back."

"Maybe, but for all intents and purposes, this should not exist in the first place."

"What do you mean?"

"The reason it shouldn't exist is simply this: It must be created by the individual that is permanently bound to it... At the same time, it could have only been fabricated by a master-smith Time Lord... However, a Time Lord would have no need for such an item, because the Rassilon Imprimatur is intrinsically part of their biological cell structure... Therefore, its existence would be entirely paradoxical... Paradoxical...  _Paradox_... Rose this is the paradox! The box wasn't a trap after all!  _It worked!_  Ha-ha, take that universe!"

The two of them grinned and hugged each other excitedly, as they were filled with renewed hope. This meant that there was still a chance at a future for them, together. Ever benevolent, Bad Wolf had given them this piece to the puzzle. If they found the owner of this chain, they might also find a clue on how to avoid their otherwise inevitable separation.

"So then, is there another Time Lord out there that we were meant to find?" Asked Rose brightly.

"Anything is possible, no matter how unlikely. Theoretically, they would have to be severely genetically damaged in some way that would require them to need this device... But a Time Lord never the less...  _Do you know what this means?_ Someone else survived the Time War!... Bad Wolf, where ever you are, I love you almost as much as Rose!"

An ecstatic Doctor put the chain under a microscope, to verify its origins. Just as he had predicted, layers of silvered graphene were laminated around living protoplasm. It was a bizarre and virtually indestructible composition. Only someone with years of advanced time-smithing could have achieved such a perfect fusion.

Upon placing the chain back on the table, its coil of Gallifreyan circles clearly read:  _Find me, I am in dire need of your help._


	5. Word Games

"How are we going to find whoever made this?"

"It is my hypothesis that the chain itself can give us a clue where to find them."

"Is it sentient or something?"

"Nah... Since it is maintaining their time stream, it is also tied to their mind. I believe that they are trying to communicate with us through the arranging and rearranging Gallifreyan lettering. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if the transmission is conscious, subconscious, or a pre-recorded message, I don't have any experience with these sort of devices... But for instance, right now the way the chain is coiled it reads:  _'Find me, I am in dire need of your help.'_ "

"Cool!... Well, not cool that they are in trouble, but the way it works is cool. We should get a notebook and write down the messages as they come to us, then we can try to make sense of them."

"I don't need a notebook, I can remember them all verbatim." He was in one of his boastful moods again.

"Ugh... Yes, I'm sure you can, but I want to help too. Humor me."

"Are you sure you're feeling up to this right now? You still look pale."

"Doctor, they are in danger. Besides, aren't you curious?"

"How about I start looking into it, and you get some more rest. You have to humor me too sometimes." The way he took her hand and squeezed it, betrayed his residual anxiety regarding the whole hypothermia incident.

"Fine, but remember to take notes. I want to read your findings when I wake up."

"Let me take you to your room." After disconnecting the warm IV, he slid one hand under back and the other under her knees, and pulled her into his arms. For a moment, Rose thought about protesting, but walking wasn't nearly as desirable as being held close to the man she loved. The effortless way he carried her showed off the hidden strength in this lean body.

When he opened the door, Rose was puzzled. "Doctor, this is your room."

"Oh… Would you rather me take you to your other room? I just assumed that this was our room now. You haven't slept in the other room for more than a week." His eyes widened, worried that he had overstepped the bounds of their new relationship. Rose certainly didn't want him back pedaling.

"No! This is perfect. I just didn't know if you were ready to call this 'our' room yet." They both smiled sheepishly at eachother. As the Doctor placed her down on the wide navy comforter, he kissed her lips adoringly. Rose kissed back, with a bit more fervor. "You could take a 'nap' with me… if you want."

It was adorable, the way he still blushed when it came to intimacy. He tilted his head side to side as he contemplated her proposition. "Tempting, as always... You little minx… but that would negate the purpose of you resting. I'm still worried about you... Tell ya what, I'll work with the chain at my desk in this room. That way, I'll be right here when you wake back up."

"As long as you keep wearing those sexy glasses, we have a deal."

"As you wish."

Rose snuggled down into the comforter, while the Doctor set about gathering the supplies he thought he would need to translate the chain. Her eyelids were heavy, but she waited until he had retrieved the chain and microscope and settled down at his desk before she allowed herself to sleep. The last thing she felt was the Tardis humming with contentment.

…

There was a hollow rattling followed by the sound of metal on a solid surface. Then she heard the scratching of a pen on paper. The pattern continued… Rolling dice? Was she dreaming about playing craps? Rose pulled the blankets up over her head to block out the noise, and turned over.

"Yahtzee!" The Doctor cheered.

"What the heck are you doing over there?" The blonde sat up and rubbed yesterday's mascara from her eyes.

"Didn't mean to wake you. I got a bit carried away!" She watched as he put the chain into a small red plastic cup, covered the top with his hand and began to shake it. "Come on… Papa needs a new Atom Accelerator!" The chain spilled out on the desktop and he studied it before scribbling something on a notepad.

"How long was I out?"

"Six hours, ten minutes, and thirty two seconds. Do you feel better?" The silver chain was returned to the cup and shaken once more.

"Yep… Is that really working?"

"Seems to be. I noticed that I got a new verse each time I set the chain down."

"So you raided the Games Room for the Yahtzee cup?"

"This is expediting the process. Plus it's fun! You wanna try?" The Doctor offered her the red cup with a little shake.

"Nah, I'm good… Can I see what you have written down so far?"

He scribbled one more entry and brought the pad of paper over the edge of the bed. "I don't think the phrases are in order, but I think that I have them all written down. No more unique ones are coming up, only repeats. Maybe you can make sense of it."

_a time ship it doesn't matter, situations but time, moments it is of, I have gotten myself into, a crevice normally, my clumsiness my partner, of this mess in mere, disinfecting ultraviolet light bulb, the utmost importance, before you come I would, is of the essence, as you arrive on time, a tight spot quite literally, when you leave so long, tell you to hurry, if it hadn't have been for, the top of the Tardis with a, would have been in and out, that you replace the light on, but since you are in, I would get myself out of these_

"Ooooo fun, a word game!"

"Yep! The only thing that concerns me the mention of Mere… Mere is a very dangerous volcanic planet. Tribes of tough-skinned fire worshipers are the only inhabitants. If the Time Lord is there, they are in some very serious trouble."

"Since you already have all of these phrases memorized, or so you claim, can I hold onto the paper while we try to figure out the proper order? Hmmm... I wonder who will figure it out first."

They grinned mischievously at each other and the game had begun. Rose on the bed and the Doctor at his desk, the two companions attacked their challenge with renewed zeal. To have said that Rose was competitive when it came to games with the Doctor, would have been an understatement. There had been many hours aboard the Tardis consisting of competition, everything from chess to Mario Kart. The few times she had come close to beating him at something, they had been 'conveniently' interrupted: 'Turbulence in the Time Vortex' knocking their board game on the floor, his foot 'accidentally' unplugging her controller, an emergency landing... Etcetera.

This time, thought, she felt like she finally had him. He was struggling, working furiously, scratching things out and re-writing. Rose was confident in her answer, it flowed naturally, as if she had know what the chain was saying all along. She was going to win this, then she was going to gloat the way he always did.

"Time's up! Wha'did you come up with old man?"

After a final flick of his pen, he stood up and handed his paper to Rose as if he had completed an exam right at the buzzer. His paper was filled with corrections and editing, even the final product didn't make much sense.

_Situations! (Salutations?) But time is of the essence._ _Would have been in and out of this mess in Mere, a tight spot quite literally, if it hadn't have been for a time ship. It doesn't matter. I have gotten myself into a crevice, normally that you (would use to) replace the light on the top of the Tardis with a disinfecting ultraviolet light bulb. I would get myself out of these moments, but since you are in, it is of the utmost importance as (that) you arrive on time. Before you come, I would tell you to hurry when you leave. So long, my clumsiness, my partner._

"Poorly worded letter, that. I think they meant to put 'salutations' instead of 'situations'. Does that mean that the other Time Lord has another Tardis that they are hiding in? Why would they need a disinfecting bulb? I feel like I am missing a segment... Maybe I just need more time to decode it."

"Mine is better!" She waved her paper at him mockingly.

"Rose, I've been playing word games for centuries. Plus, I'm a genius. You really think you came up with a better solution than I did?" He preened his lustrous brown hair. How could just one person house such a massive ego?

"Oi… You're not perfect!"

"Fine. I'll indulge you, but I don't really see the point." Grabbing the paper out of her hands, he adjusted his glasses and began to read.

_I have gotten myself into a tight spot, quite literally, a crevice. Normally I would get myself out of these situations, but time is of the essence. If it hadn't have been for my clumsiness, my partner would have been in and out of this mess in mere moments. It is of the utmost importance that you replace the light on the top of the Tardis with a disinfecting ultraviolet light bulb, before you come. I would tell you to hurry, but since you are in a time ship it doesn't matter when you leave, so long as you arrive on time._

As he slumped down on the bed next to her, he sucked in a terse breath and mumbled something into the lapel of his jacket.

"What was that? I didnt hear you."

"Your solution is better." He mumbled begrudgingly... Deflated, defeated...

Rose was surprised by his admission, even tough she had seen it coming. "So I win for once? I beat the great and powerful Doctor in a word game?"

"Maybe… But don't get cocky, it wont happen again."

"Woo, I won! The master of time and space lost!" She said as she whooped and pumped her fists in the air.

"Be careful, Rose... You don't want to cross the Oncoming Storm..." Warned the Doctor, as he narrowed his eyes.

"I won, fair and square! What're you gonna do about it?" She stuck her pink tongue out at him through her teeth.

Suddenly, he growled and tackled her on the bed, pinning her arms and legs down beneath him. When she tried to pulled her hands free, he tightened his grip on her. "You've been a naughty girl Rose Tyler. It's not wise to taunt a Time Lord."

"Oh really?... You mean a Time  _Loser?_ "

With that, he nipped at her neck. "Oh yes... You're asking for it now..." A giggle escaped Rose's lips while he continued to nip and tease. He kissed her roughly and the two of them forgot all about the message, and the chain, and hypothermia for the rest of the morning.

...

Much,  _much_  later... The two of them returned to the console room with the chain and Rose's translation. She still glowed after every time they made love, and it baffled the Doctor to no end. Not knowing why was exceedingly irksome to him. He hoped that finding this mystery Time Lord would at least provide them with a couple answers.

Placed neatly on the jump seat in front of them was a bright green box wrapped in cellophane. On the label it read:  _Disinfecting Ultraviolet Replacement Bulb. Kills 99% of Germs Instantly!_  It was strange that this person had made such a bizarre request, but at least it appeared that the Tardis had the correct bulb in stock. Where ever they were going, there were sure to be excess germs. (Better than Mere at least.) Reading his mind, the ship placed a bottle of hand sanitizer and rubber gloves next to the new bulb. Changing out the bulb was quick and easy.

Once Rose had read her translation out loud, the chain began displaying different data in the twisting of its links: Precise coordinates in space and time. "Well... Allons-y!"


	6. Disinfectant & Destiny

She had jumped in after him,  _again_. Why did she always have to jump in after him?  _Stupid decisions!_  Oh, who was she kidding, she always would jump after him. He could say 'jump', and she would say 'how high?' no matter the circumstances. She would follow him to the end of the universe, and she had on multiple occasions.

The problem this time was that when she had jumped after him, the rock she landed on had crumbled away beneath her. Delaying what would have otherwise been a quick subterranean investigation. She fell further into the crevice than they intended to go and had gotten thoroughly tangled in a sticky spider web, which had inadvertently alerted the nearby spidery creatures to their presence. There were thousands of them swarming the cavern below them, and now they had turned and were heading their way. She could have fought off three or four of them maybe, but thousands? And while stuck in a web?  _Impossible!_

The fissure shook with another round of tremors, more rocks crumbled and fell, the area was quickly growing unstable. She looked up to her companion whose face had drained of color and mouth hung open. He attempted to scramble down to where she was, in an effort to protect her and help remove the constricting web. There was no way he could take on thousands of the badger sized creatures either. There has been many instances in their travels in which she had worried that her presence was diverting him from his intended timeline, but this was not one of those instances. She had an ace up her sleeve today.

Before he could sacrifice himself for her, again, she called to him through their comm link. "Wait! Stay where you are! Everything is going to be fine!"

"How can you say that?! We only have an hour and a half before this place collapses entirely!" Came his response.

Right at that instant, a familiar wheezing sound filled the cavern. The Tardis had materialized next to her. Its flashing, bright, disinfecting light shone into all the dark nooks and crannies around her. The creatures that didn't flee quickly enough started to shrivel and disintegrate, like the nasty giant germs that they were.

The Doctor opened the door partially, but stayed inside the protective boundaries of the Tardis's atmosphere. "Hello? Anyone there?... Rose stay back, there's no air out here."

"I knew you'd come!" She said before she realized that he couldn't hear her through the spacesuit she was wearing. Eye contact and a wink would have to suffice for right now.

With the creatures gone, she could focus her energy on wiggling her hand towards her sonic pen in the outer pocket of her spacesuit. A quick buzz from the sonic, and her web restraints dissolved. She retrieved the note that she had written upon learning where they were going that day and handed it to the bemused Doctor, who was still lingering in the doorway of the Tardis. Her companion jumped down on top of the police box with a loud thump and extended his hand down to her. When she took it, he hoisted her up onto the top of the Tardis as well. The two of them climbed out of the deteriorating fissure to rejoin the others and tell them of their discovery before it was too late.

...

The Doctor pulled the Tardis door closed and stood there with one eyebrow raised as he read a small scrap of paper. What had just transpired out there? He had blocked her view for the entire duration of the short interlude. The door was only open for a few minutes, that couldn't be right, could it? This was supposed to be important, she could feel it at her core. What about the paradox? What about the answers they were going to get? What about their future? Anxiety chipped away at her usual calm demeanor. Rose felt as though she might burst.

"What happened?! All that buildup for only 3 minutes?!  _Is that it?!_ "

"It certainly was…  _something_ … I believe this note is for you."

"Who was on the roof? Were we really inside the moon, like the Tardis monitor showed? You didn't even give them the chain back!"

"Heh, calm down! I think I know what's going on and it's all going to work out in the end... Read the note." His nonchalance only proved to aggravate her further.

"Another sodding letter?! Why so cryptic? Why won't someone just tell me what's going on?!"

"Yes, we were indeed inside the moon.  _Satisfied?_ … Now if you'll excuse me, I have some additional coordinates to enter."

"Ugh!  _Doctor!_ "

"Look, this whole thing is meant for you, Rose Tyler. I don't want to bollocks it up with my interpretation... You'll soon understand more about all of this than I do."

Exasperated, she unfolded the paper. It read:

_My dearest Rose, thank you for coming! Apologies for the brevity of our encounter, but there was an urgent matter that I needed to attend to. I do need to speak with you face to face, however. There are a set of coordinates below, I will meet you there shortly. Bring the chain!_

"This isn't some sort of wild goose chase is it?"

The Doctor shook his head no, as he piloted the Tardis to the location indicated in the note. The ship landed with a mild shutter, and the Doctor crossed his arms and leaned back on the console, sporting a smug smile. "Go on then." He nodded toward the doors.

"You're not coming with me?"

"Nope… There's nothing dangerous out there. Weeelllll, nothing too dangerous anyway." He looked pleased with himself, as though he had just made a joke that no one else had gotten.

"And you trust me to do this alone, yeah?"

Affection chased away some of the smug in his expression, he walked over to her and placed his hands on both of her shoulders. His face was close to hers so that she could see and feel his sincerity. "Rose, believe me when I say that I trust you more than I trust myself. And I would never ever send you into harm's way alone."

The Tardis hummed her own brand of reassurance as the Doctor kissed her forehead softly. With a creak the door opened on its own, prompting Rose to go out and face her destiny.


	7. Mr Curmudgeon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This chapter contains spoilers for 'Kill the Moon'.

"The future is no more malleable than the past." Said the Doctor, starting to detach himself from the situation. A large hologram in the center of the module displayed the scan they had taken from inside the fissure. It showed an unknown creature wrapped around itself, encased in its egg, preparing to hatch and potentially destroy the Earth in the process. It was eerily beautiful.

"Ok, don't you do this to make some kind of point." She could tell that Clara was becoming cross with him for putting this entirely on her shoulders, rightfully so. Killing the moon would be a heavy decision for anyone to make.

"Sorry. Well, actually, no, I'm not sorry. It's time to take the stabilisers off your bike. It's your moon, womankind. It's your choice."  _How could he say that?_  He had spent countless years on the Earth. It was his moon too, whether or not he claimed it.

Clara must have been thinking the same thing. "And you're just going to stand there? Rose, can you reason with him?"

When he was acting like this, there was little she could do to control him, but she would try. "We have to help..."

"Absolutely not." He cut her off just as the Tardis arrived in the shuttle behind them. A very confused 15 year old girl emerged, looking for comfort from her teacher.

"Doctor?"

"A teenager, an astronaut and a schoolteacher." He pushed Courtney toward Lundvik and Clara, apparently content that he had a large enough sample of the human race to make such an important decision.

"Hang on a minute. We can get in there, can't we? You can sort it out with that thing". Poor Lundvik, she was quick to catch on, but not quick enough to reason with the Doctor. Rose sincerely hoped she wouldn't detonate the nuclear warheads surrounding them in the module, but she didn't know her well enough to be sure.

"We should be able to…". Rose tried once more to interject, but once more she was cut off.

"No. Some decisions are too important not to make on your own. Come on Rose." The stubborn Time Lord strode into his ship without looking back.

"And where do you think you're going?" Rose chased him into Tardis, intent on bringing him back to face the problem after he had calmed down a bit.

"Doctor?  _Doctor!_ " They heard Clara yelling as the ship dematerialized.

_VWOORP... VWOORP... VWOORP..._

"We're going to Henrick's now... That's the location you gave them isn't it? Ah, you left a sticky note on the console with the coordinates, that makes things simple." Pulling the appropriate levers and pushing the corresponding buttons for travel, he kept his face stoic.

" _Now?_  A right arse, you are! Just leaving them to die!" Removing her spacesuit was proving to be difficult, as frustrated as she was. She abruptly yanked off the the ugly yellow suit and donned her (current) favorite jacket and gloves.

"I am doing nothing of the sort. This is their decision to make, not mine. Clara can handle it." His arms were folded and he scowled, she knew that expression all too well. He would not budge on this issue.

"You know what I think... I think you've gone and done it this time. We'll be lucky if she's not finished with us for good after what you said... Bike stabilizers... You prat."

"I was always going to go back and get them... Honestly, what do you take me for?"

"You're damn right you're going back to get them!" On the external monitor she saw her guest approaching. She opened the door to leave but the Doctor stopped her by catching her elbow.

"Wait... Rose, I didn't mean this as an insult to her... It was meant to show respect for her independence."

"Fat lot of respect that was, did you even see her face? Clara means as much to you as she does to me, and you're going to lose her if you don't treat her better."

"I suppose this version of me might be somewhat short on tact." He sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets. "I'll work on it, for Clara... For you."

"Thank you." Rose hugged him and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "Right then, I'm going to go talk to our guest over there, before she thinks us rude. She has enough on her plate without having to watch us bicker too... But afterwards we are going to go get those girls."

"Yes, of course... I'll be just inside the Tardis if you need me."

...

Rose had stepped out of the Tardis, and into the storeroom below Henrick's Department store. Instinctively, she whipped her head around looking for any living plastic or mannequins, but there were none current visible. This must have been taking place before the incident with the Autons, she thought to herself... Before she had met the Doctor... She felt her heart clench with nostalgia. This was where he had first taken her hand, and she had never let go.

Whomever this mystery Time Lord was, they clearly had intimate knowledge of her relationship with the Doctor. Was choosing this location to meet intended for easing her fears? Around the corner she heard two voices arguing. Following the sound, she discovered another blue police box idling in an alcove. She supposed that she should have been surprised, but for some reason she wasn't.

The woman exiting the vessel had her same hazel eyes, her same thick eyelashes, and her same full lips… But her hair showed more of her natural color and small wrinkles were forming in the corners of her eyes. Her face might have been a bit leaner too. The black leather jacket and driving gloves she wore would have made her look more world weary and hardened, if she weren't grinning brightly from ear to ear. On some level Rose had always known this would happen, Bad Wolf had designed it this way intentionally.

"Sorry about that. We don't usually argue, but it's a tense situation we're in at the moment." The older woman approached and embraced her like they were long lost sisters.

"It's alright... I don't... I mean...  _You're me!_  I can't believe you're me! I have so many questions! Like why were you inside the moon?"

"We were trying to help an astronaut decide whether or not to kill the giant creature living inside the moon... But I've said too much, best not to know too much of your own future, yeah? Just know that you will accompany the Doctor to the moon in 2049 and you'll need to recreate that note I gave you."

"Kill the moon? But it's still there after 2049, right? I've been to the future, and I think it was still there..."

"That's exactly what I said! Oh never mind... I believe you have something of mine?"

"Really? This is your Rassilon something-something chain?" She held out the silver trinket she had been carrying.

"External Rassilon Imprimatur Containment System? Yes it is! Thank you so much for returning it." The older version of herself took the chain and examined it as it twisted and turned hanging from her fingertips.

"But the Doctor said that this would be bound to the maker, and that the maker would have to be a Time Lord."

"True, but with hard work and dedication, it can also be created by the long term apprentice to the most brilliant Time Lord of them all. Don't tell him I said that, though, we'd never hear the end of his ego."

It was otherworldly hearing multiple versions of own her laugh ringing through the air at once, someone else must have thought so too because a grey haired gentleman with bushy eyebrows popped his head out of the older Tardis. Rose knew immediately in her heart that this was the future incarnation of her Doctor, and she smiled at him. Comforting to know that she would be able to recognize him, no matter what body he was in.

"I hear canoodling. What are you up to?" His baritone voice sounded paranoid.

"Nothing!" They both replied in unison.

"For some reason, I don't believe you. I think I'll just stand right here, to make sure you two don't bollocks anything up… Two Roses, that can mean nothing but trouble." He said, which prompted the rolling of two sets of hazel eyes. Was this future Doctor always so grumpy? "Well carry on then, pretend that I'm not even here."

Turning her attention back to the older Rose, she asked: "So, how did you… I mean, I... make this?"

"You will have centuries to study it. When the time comes, you'll know how to make it… That reminds me…" The older Rose fished around in the pocket of her jacket. "Make sure you have the Doctor give you transdimensional pockets, by the way… So much better than a purse…  _Aha!_ " She pulled out another chain. At first glance it looked identical to the one they had just been discussing, but this one was brand new and unmarred by use. It was also lacking the flickering silver life force running through it.

"Is that..."

"Yep, this one is yours… well… mine, sort of… will become mine. Crossing timelines is a pain when it comes to proper verb tense and pronouns. Anyways, this is the one I just finished making for you. Give me your wrist."

The younger Rose held out her arm, still baffled at how she had (will have?) created such a captivating piece. With a buzz from the older Rose's sonic pen, the chain was fastened to her left wrist. She turned it over and over again, marveling at the craftsmanship. There was no clasp that she could find, otherwise she might have know that this was a bracelet to begin with.

"Where is the clasp?"

"There isn't one. It will never come off or break. Not that you should try to take it off anyway. It will become fused with your timeline, with your very existence." With that, she reattached the more worn bracelet back onto her left wrist. "Ah, much better!"

"Then how did you lose yours? What happens to us if it is off?"

"There is a great story for how I lost it in Norway!... Unfortunately I can't tell it to you."

"Aww… come on."

"Don't want to ruin the surprise! But I can tell you what happens when it is off. Once it is activated, it will aid in keeping your mind young and organized. The human mind is not meant to handle the complexities of traveling through time and space for centuries… Let me explain it this way… When a Time Lord dies, all that remains is an undulating, morphing, scar of a time stream… It looks a bit like lightning or raw energy… It represents all the choices they made in their life, all the paths they took, all of connections they made… Their timeline is a part of their physiological existence. We do not have the capability to maintain that structure within our brain cells, so this bracelet does it for us… Think of it as an external hard drive."

"Cool!"

"It is pretty cool… But when it was off, my brain started to age. Some of my memories were no longer sharp and clear. They became more fuzzy and intangible, like a waking dream. I might not gain the clarity of those memories back, but at least I wont lose any more now that you've brought it back. When you do lose it, take comfort in knowing that a younger version of yourself will bring it back to you."

"How old are you anyway?"

"Blimey! I have no idea to be honest. You know how time is on the Tardis… Probably for the best, I wouldn't want to know at this point... Lets just say really old, multiple centuries"

"Wow, you look great…. Wait, you just said that the bracelet helps keep your mind young… What about your body, how is that not aging either?"

"Oh, uh… well… Bad Wolf rewired us a bit." The older woman wound a strand of hair around her finger and the younger woman realized that she had been doing the very same thing absentmindedly.

"But we're not Time Ladies. Otherwise we wouldn't need the bracelet, yeah?"

"No… Not Time Ladies… Bad Wolf created this paradox so that we could become a good mate for the Doctor. That also entailed rewiring part of our brain so that we could experience telepathy… and enhancing our neural receptors to be more attuned to … er… the Doctor's biology."

"What do you mean by enhanced neural receptors?"

"So, remember when the Doctor told you that 'regenerative energy was needed for Gallifreyan conception'?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

Obviously the older Rose was having a hard time wording this politely. "Essentially, when he 'makes love' to you… us… we absorb that regenerative energy into the cells of our nervous system, and it is broadcast through out our bodies. Ultimately, it keeps our bodies from aging at a normal rate. We are still aging, but very slowly."

"That must be why I started glowing! So basically, the more I shag the Doctor, the longer I will live?" The younger Rose had no issue with being a little crass.

"Exactly!"

"That's hysterical! 'Oi, Doctor, you better shag me, or I might shrivel up into a wrinkled old bag lady'." Her smile faded when she was struck with self-doubt regarding the implications. That would be putting a lot of pressure on their fledgeling sex life. "How often do we need to 'make love' for that system to work? What if he gets bored of me? What if we have a fight that lasts too long? How long is too long between shags?"

"Don't get hung up on the frequency of your intimacy, ok? It's been many many  _many_ years and that hasn't been an issue. Trust me, that will not be an problem for you guys."

"Even with Mr. Curmudgeon over there?" Both Roses laughed whole-heartedly.

"Hey now!… He might not be quite as foxy as the model you're with now… or the one after that… but he is still just as feisty, I assure you. Mr. Curmudgeon and I are still very happy together." She whispered. Then she called to him: "Isn't that right schmoopy snuggly pooky bear?" The Doctor grumbled something inaudible and sighed. The Roses burst back into gales of laughter.

"So how come my bracelet isn't all shimmery like yours?"

"It's not activated yet."

"How do I activate it?" She turned her wrist again to admire her new accessory.

"Please don't worry about that. The event that activates it is going to happen soon, I can feel it… I'm not going to lie, it will be traumatic. All paradoxes come at a price… Tell me, what would you be willing to pay to get your forever with the Doctor?"

"If you're me, you already know the answer to that."

Rose smiled sadly and gave the younger version of herself a hug. "Goodbye Rose, thank you again for returning my bracelet… Remember… be strong, for him."

"Always."

...

After making her way back through the storeroom, she found her dear pinstriped Doctor waiting for her in the doorway of the Tardis. All smiles, he was, especially when he caught sight of her new bracelet. He rocked on the heels of his plimsoles. "How'd it go?"

"Good! Brilliant actually! But why didn't you want to come with me?"

"I've met myself enough times to know that it usually ends in disaster. Additionally, this paradox you've created is very fragile. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I was the one to ruin it. I hope you understand."

He escorted her inside and they both flopped down on the jump seat. Rose recapped her meeting with her future self for the Doctor: The bracelet, how she would make it, and how she wouldn't age in body or mind... "So there's something I don't understand though."

"Hmm? What's that?"

"If your jizz has so much regenerative energy, why not utilize it in emergency situations?"

His brown eyes sprung open. If he had been drinking something, Rose was sure he would have spit it out in a comical fashion. "Rose Marion Tyler, do you kiss your mother with that mouth?!"

"I kiss you too, incase you forgot." Said Rose, as she put her hands on her hips. "But I'm serious! Not like 'wank on someone in the moment', but carry around a little vial in your pocket."

"Do you have some weird hang up with me wanking into test tubes?"

"I'm not suggesting you should bottle it and sell it to little old ladies as anti-wrinkle cream… but if someone was mortally wounded… you could… ya know." She mimed the action of pouring out her suggested vial, and the Doctor looked absolutely mortified.

"No, no, and no… Number one,  _eww_. I have class and a sense of propriety… Number two, the advantages of carrying that around are greatly outweighed by the risk of it falling into the wrong hands. You know... someone trying to create a Time Lord cross-breed or something… And three, It doesn't work like that. It is meant to work on one cell, the zygote. The fact that it can prolong your life is an anomaly unique unto to you... But there isn't enough energy in it to heal or cure anything. It's not... It's not..." He was waving his hand around in circles, as if he were searching for the right word to use.

" _Potent enough?_ " Rose offered mischievously.

"Oi! Watch your phrasing! I'll have you know that there is nothing wrong with my potency."

"Hah! Alright, alright... Your masculinity is not in question here." She giggled.

"Let us never speak of that again, shall we?"

"Fine...  _Oh!_  Being at Henrick's reminded me, I think we should go check in with Mum next. When we last chatted, she was carrying on about Granddad visiting her..."

"I dont see the problem."

"Granddad passed away years ago."

"Ah… You're right, that is suspicious. Next stop, Jackie Tyler." He sounded terribly relieved to no longer be talking about 'jizz'. Relieved enough to agree to visit her Mum, so long as it changed the subject.


	8. Ghostbusters vs Doomsdaty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This chapter contains spoilers for Doomsday. I assume you have all seen it, and that won't be a problem.

_Ghosts_ … The human race could be a right bunch of nutters, when left to their own devices. Why wouldn't anyone search for a better explanation for the noncorporeal apparitions that sodding  _ghosts?_  Alien interference as an explanation could be completely rational, but poltergeists from beyond the grave?… That's just preposterous. The only race that could conjure deceased spirits were the Tooshleths. But since they were already nebulous gaseous life forms to begin with, it was virtually impossible to tell the 'ghosts' from the living Tooshleths. Besides, the only way that they could achieve such a feat, was that gas couldn't really die by conventional standards in the first place. No, this must be related to the dimensional rift…  _Void stuff_ … He would have to find a pair of 3D glasses soon.

"Ah-ha! Here's what I was looking for!" He strapped on the rucksack he had found and grabbed the chorded modulator socket… Ironic, a bit, how it looked so much like the Ghostbusters pack. He chuckled thinking back to Bad Wolf's bad joke about Zuul. He could laugh about the paradox box now, it had all worked out for the best. "Oooo...  _paradox box,_  I like that. It rhymes!"

Rose walked across the grating above him. "According to the paper, they've elected a ghost as MP for Leeds. Now don't tell me you're going to sit back and do nothing."

How could he resist such an easy gag? Obvious answer there, he couldn't! The Doctor popped out from under the console floor with a: "Who ya gonna call?"

"Ghostbusters!" Answered Rose, merrily.

"I ain't afraid of no ghosts!" And why shouldn't they be merry? Rose was practically immortal now, he could keep her!  _Really truly keep her!_  Her forever had just gotten significantly longer, so long as they kept up with regular shagging. A  _'sacrifice'_  he was  _waaaay_  more than willing to make. Nothing could ruin his good mood, not even Jackie Tyler. The Doctor stepped back out of the Tardis to where Jackie was standing, waiting for them. "When's the next shift?"

Jackie replied: "Quarter to. But don't go causing trouble. What's that lot do?"

It was true, he did nothing quite so well as causing trouble. The 'lot' she was referring to were the three conical coordinate detectors that he was setting up. He would be using them in an attempt to catch one of those so-called 'ghosts'. "Triangulates their point of origin."

Rose came up behind them. "I don't suppose it's the Gelth"

Smart as a whip, his Rose... But unfortunately, this was much bigger than the Gelth. "Nah... They were just coming through one little rift. This lot are transposing themselves over the whole planet. Like tracing paper."

"You're always doing this. Reducing it to science. Why can't it be real? Just think of it, though. All the people we've lost. Our families coming back home... Don't you think it's beautiful?" Jackie, not so smart, but she was beginning to grow on him…  _a little._ Any woman that could produce Rose couldn't be all bad.

"I think it's horrific." That ought to shut her up for a while, he thought. Jackie hadn't grown on him  _that_  much, not to the point that he wanted to hear her mindless drivel.

…

So those ghosts? They turned out to be legions of cybermen crossing the void from Mickey's universe. They were pulled through the rift that had been created by an ominous spherical void ship. However, the cybermen were not the biggest problem they were currently facing. That blasted void ship had contained a group of daleks, protecting a Genesis Ark. Sweet bumbling Mickey had accidentally activated the Genesis Ark, but Rose couldn't hold that against him. If it hadn't have been opened by Mickey, the daleks might've blown up the sun in order to do so… This way, they had more time to deflect the tremendous threat.

Thousands of daleks were pouring out of the Genesis Ark. Luckily, (If one could consider cybermen lucky.) the cybermen were providing a distraction for the emerging daleks, as they fought for control of the Earth. Most humans were able to temporarily seek cover. Just as everything was appearing hopeless, her wonderful Doctor had come up with a plan to open the Void in reverse, and suck back in the daleks and the cyberman alike. Anything tainted by the void would be pulled back in. Since she and the Doctor had crossed into the alternate universe a few months prior, they were also at risk. In an effort to protect her from the Void, he had tried to send her to the safety of the parallel universe with her Mum and Mickey… Silly Doctor, sending her away to protect her hadn't worked on the Game Station, and it wasn't going to work at Canary Wharf either. She would fight by his side until the bitter end.

"Once the breach collapses, that's it. You will never be able to see her again. Your own mother!"

"I made my choice a long time ago, and I'm never going to leave you. So what can I do to help?" Rose meant every word. She loved her Mum, but she had Pete now. Her Doctor needed her in this universe, he didn't have anyone else. But he would never have to tumble through space and time alone again, not as long as she had anything to say about it.

After some quick recalibrations of Torchwood's computer terminal, they anchored magnagrips to the walls near the two levers that would re-open the breech. Cybermen were coming up the stairs from the floor below them, they were running out of time to put their plan into action.

"When it starts, just hold on tight. Shouldn't be too bad for us but the Daleks and the Cybermen are steeped in Void stuff. Are you ready?"

"So are they." Rose said, when she caught sight of a few furious daleks hovering just outside the window.

The Doctor took note of them too and shouted: "Let's do it!"

Simultaneously, they activated their respective levers before locking their arms around the magnagrips. A blinding light engulfed the wall behind them as the breach opened. Powerful gusts of wind began being sucked into the void and Rose tightened her grip to avoid being pulled in. The daleks outside the window crashed through the glass and flew past her into the nothingness.

"The breach is open! Into the Void!  _Ha!_ " The Doctor taunted them as they rushed past.

The forces pulling at her were relentless, but she wouldn't perish like this. After all they had been through securing their future; she was not going to give up, not now. Daleks and cybermen flew past in her peripheral vision, but she did not take her eyes off the Doctor across the room.  _Hold on,_  she told herself,  _hold on just a big longer._ She was just beginning to think that they were going to make it out of this predicament unscathed, that is, until the lever holding the breech open on her side was pulled offline by the force of the portal.

It absolutely had to be put back online, or else this whole universe would be decimated by daleks. Even the Time War would have been for naught if daleks continued to maurade unchecked. There was no other race powerful enough to stop them anymore. There was no one left to fight against them, save for Rose and her Doctor… And fight, she would… _Be strong, for him._

She let herself drop back to the lever. With the void only at half power, she was able to muster enough force to push the lever back online. Unfortunately, she was that much closer to the source when the void was opened back up to full strength, and the lever proved harder to hold onto. Soon it became evident that her weak human fingers couldn't maintain their grasp. It was too much, too overwhelming. She was going to slip, it was inevitable. Tears fell from her eyes as her tenuous grip on that dimension gave way.

A painful jerk caught her by the wrist, before she had time to accept her fate. Somehow her bracelet had gotten snagged on one of the pieces of the lever, and was cutting painfully into her skin. Her wrist was stuck in a tense flexed position due to the precarious way she was hanging from it.  _It will not break,_  she heard a version of herself saying.  _It will not break, it will hold fast… It may hurt, but it will not break… Be strong, for him..._

Blood started streaming down her arm toward the breach as the chain cut deeper into her flesh. The excruciating pain was nothing compared to losing her Doctor, she told herself. She thought she felt something sinewy snap, but the blood was too thick for her to see how deeply the bracelet was carving. She realized then that she had been screaming in agony, but she was powerless to stop herself. The Doctor was panicking, yelling something at her desperately. Over the roar of the void and her own cries, she couldn't make out what he was saying. The rate at which she was losing blood was unsustainable, and she fought to maintain consciousness. Every second that passed, the bracelet severed through more of her wrist. Please let my bones be strong enough to support me for just a moment longer.  _Be strong, for him… Another snap, more blood, less feeling… Be strong, for him…_

It was as if she were watching herself from above, it was easier to observe than participate in the searing pain… Floating, detached, suspended indefinitely… Her out of body experience came to an abrupt end when the void finally shut, and she crashed down to the floor. The Doctor leapt from his magnagrip on the wall to her side the instant the portal closed. Her head was reeling and reddened shapes danced across her field of vision; they threatened to consume her.

"Rose, Rose… Stay with me… You're losing a lot of blood."

"I can't… I can't feel my fingers." He ripped off his tie, and wrapped it around her forearm as tightly as he could.

"It's going to be ok… Everything is going to ok, I'm here…  _MEDIC!_ "

"Did we win? Am I still with you?"

"We won, Rose. I'm here..." All she could see was the blinding blue light of his sonic screwdriver. "Stay with me, I'm going to cauterize the wound...  _SOMEONE BRING ME SOME SURGICAL SHEARS!_ "

At some point, someone injected her with something to dull the pain, but her mind was so dull already that she had lost all feeling. Blurry people rushed back and forth with reddened cloth and hot water. All she wanted to do was close her eyes and let this be a dream. Tingly, restful, blackness beckoned to her, but she refused to give in. Rose was positive that she wasn't lucid, but it took every bit of strength she had left to stay somewhat conscious.  _Be strong, for him…_

...

While watching the scene unfolding in front of her, Rose felt a phantom pain shoot up her left arm. She looked down at her bionic hand and flexed her mechanical fingers. Its flawless fabrication was thanks to her dear Doctor, of course. He had made her this hand so that she could be complete once more. Ironically, without the meticulous precision afforded by her prosthetic, she would have been unable to recreate the silver bracelet. Perhaps it was not ironic, but intentional. She shook her head,  _oh Bad Wolf, and her deliberate manipulation of destiny._  Rose reflected on the way time intertwined itself throughout her life, it was mysterious, strange and utterly beautiful.  _Big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff indeed._

"Is it done then?" A gruff voice came up from behind her, just as they were strapping the younger Rose onto a stretcher. Her tie tourniquet had been replaced with a standard rubber one, and the bleeding had all but stopped. Thankfully.

"Yeah, the paradox is a closed loop."

"So it is…" From the shadows, they watched the tribulations of the younger couple, hand in hand. It was hard to witness the anguish of their former selves, but at the same time it was somewhat cathartic. When they had seen enough, the two companions turned to leave before someone noticed them. He asked: "Did you really say that I'm not as foxy now as I was then?"

"Well, maybe if you'd trim your ear hair from time to time."

"So, if I trim my ear hair, I'll be foxy again?"

"No, but you'll do a better job eavesdropping and you won't have to ask me to repeat myself." She gave him one of her impetuous tongue touched smiles.

"Oh! Shut up."

"Quit your pouting! You know I'll always find you sexy. You're my silver fox now...And I love you just the way you are." Rose leaned her head against his shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah... Ditto." The Doctor squeezed her good hand tightly and almost grinned.

This version of him wasn't overly romantic, but she knew his hearts still beat only for her. Plus, he was endlessly fun to tease, and shamefully easy to confound. "Well, come on then, Mr. Foxy... Clara's waiting for us."


	9. Casanova

The next few days were a drug addled blur for Rose, filled with over-bright lights and muffled sounds. She could feel the ringing in her ears from behind her eyes, it was penetrating, bright, searing... Visions of pinstripes filled her fevered thoughts. Was he actually inside her mind to soothe her? or was she merely imagining it?

The sun was peeking through the blinds into her white room, when the harshest of the drugs finally started leaving her system. The smell of bleach assaulted her nose, and her stomach turned. At least there was nothing in her stomach to retch up. Something nearby was beeping monotonously, keeping time with her heartbeat. Her senses felt too sharp for her to process normally. She forced herself to concentrate on what was in front of her. Gradually, through the fog, a shining pair of blue eyes came into focus.

"Are you awake, Rosie?" The voice sounded too far away to be directed at her.

"Mmmmm…. Not sure yet." A few more blinks, and her field of vision expanded enough to register who was talking to her.

"Take your time." Said Jack Harkness. He was sitting beside her, clutching her hand, and smiling.

"Jack?" More of her surroundings became clear. Her room was stark white, except for the large dark contraption that was monitoring her vitals. The lines on the screen flicked along with the beeping. "Where am I?"

"One of the medical suites in what's left of Torchwood 1."

"Wh... Where's…"

"The Doctor? He's fine, no worries. He's working on a special project in the Tardis right now. That control freak only agreed to leave your side if I was the one to sit with you. Something about you seeing a familiar face, should you wake up… Which you did!" Rose tried to smile back at him, but she was too weak for it to have looked genuine. She nodded instead. "You don't need to talk if you don't want to. Let me just fill you in on what happened, ok?... So, I got called to London to help clean up this huge dalek-y cyber-dude mess. Shoulda known that you and the Doctor would be right at the center of it.  _What a disaster!_... Anyway, after seeing your condition, Torchwood and I insisted on caring for you. It seemed only right, since you saved the world…  _again_. The Doctor reluctantly agreed to our assistance, because the surgeries you needed were ones that even he couldn't perform alone."

"Surgeries?"

"Erm… Might not want to look at your left arm, just yet. It got pretty screwed up. They tried...  _twice!._.. to reattach…" Jack paused. He didn't want to overwhelm her, but Rose was always so strong and graceful in difficult situations. "Umm… The way your wrist was severed by that bracelet, the cut was too jagged to be repaired… Even by the Doctor. He tried, furiously, trust me."

" _Bracelet!_  Where's my bracelet?!" Rose sat up with a start.

"You hand has just been amputated, and you're worried about a fashion accessory?"

"It's not a fashion accessory! It's what saved me! I need it to be able to travel with the Doctor indefinitely! It's the paradox, Jack!  _THE PARADOX!_ " The blips on the monitor sped up with her sudden exertion.

"Woah, woah!…  _Calm down!_  I believe the Doctor has it. Do you want me to go get him for you?"

"I… I don't think I want to be alone Jack." The beeping slowed back down, but Rose was still frightened. Her face was devoid of any color, except for the darkened circles under her eyes.

"Ok. I'll text one of my compadre's to go get him. He wanted to be alerted the moment you woke up, anyway. He's been worried sick about you, ya know, an absolute wreck! Poor sod hasn't slept or ate since the battle…. Hold up, what did you mean travel indefinitely?"

Rose slumped back against the pillows. That small rush of adrenaline was too much for her currently frail body to handle. "Shagging the Doctor will keep my body young for centuries… The bracelet will keep my mind young too."

"Shagging the Doctor, eh? Do go on…"

"Regenerative jizz…"

Jack cocked one of his eyebrows. "Rosie my dear, I think you're delirious… But tell me more about the shagging..."

Just then, an out of breath Doctor burst into the hospital room. "That won't be necessary Jack, even though she was telling the truth." He ushered Jack away from Rose's side, and took his place. "Rose?!"

"Doctor!" The light that had been missing from her eyes returned when she saw him.

"Wait just a minute here! I wanna see this spunky fountain of youth!" Jack exclaimed.

The Doctor gave him a chiding glance. "You sir, do not need to live any longer than you already are…  _Not gonna happen._ "

"Damn…" The Captain didn't look too crestfallen, when he snapped his fingers. He had to have been expecting that response, considering who he was talking to. "Ah well, I'll give you two lovebirds a few moments alone… And don't mind the cameras in the ceiling, just do whatever you want to do. Don't bother holding back…" He winked.

After the Doctor shooed Jack out of the room, he gave the conspicuous camera in the corner a buzz from his sonic. There was a spark as it apparently short-circuited. In an instant he was back at her side, kissing the back of her right hand. "Rose… You have got to stop scaring me like this… I can't handle more than one heart attack at a time."

"I'm still here with you… That's all that matters."

"Nothing will ever be able to separate us. You are my life now Rose Tyler." She frowned at his statement, and the Doctor straightened up, perplexed. "Please dont tell me that you're already regretting your decision to stay in this universe... with me."

"No, it's not that… Though, I would be lying if I said I wasn't a bit heartbroken. I didn't think that the cost of this paradox would end up being my Mum, Pete, Mickey and my hand. I could've handled one of those, but all together..." The misery she felt deepened when she admitted to herself that they were all out of her life, for good. "At least I know Mum is safe and well, I suppose… No wonder my future self looked so melancholy when she asked what I would give to have my forever with you."

"If it's not that, then what's wrong?"

"You sent me away…  _again_."

"To protect you." He justified, in vain.

"I don't want to be sent away from you,  _ever!_  But you can't do that anymore. There is no fail safe for me now… No alternate life to send me back to… No Mum back at Powell Estates… There is only you…  _only us_ … I don't have anything else left in this universe. The only thing that has ever separated us, is you Doctor. Please don't send me away again!"

He rested his forehead against her hand, and swallowed. "Oh Rose… I swear to you, I will never send you away again. We will be side by side through everything that time and space has to throw at us."

"You said roughly the same thing after the game station." She murmured.

"Well…" He cleared his throat, but made a genuine sort of eye contact with her. "Do you need some kind of confirmation of my commitment to you?"

 _Was he serious?_ He always ran away from any sort of commitment. Rose didn't want to frighten him away, the fact that they had any kind of romantic relationship at all was more than she had ever dared to expect. "No… Nothing so domestic…That's not you..." He retrieved the silver bracelet from his pocket, and slid it over the gauze wrapped end of her forearm. "What're you…"

The Doctor responded with the most beautiful twelve syllables that she had ever heard, ringing like a song from his hearts. Whoever said that French was the most romantic language, had never heard Gallifreyan. She didn't know why, but the word threatened to bring tears to her eyes.

"Doctor?"

"That is my name Rose. My true name. I'd like for you to call me by it when we bond... That is, if you'll have this damaged old Time Lord as a bondmate... In all my years, I have never found a soul as beautiful as yours. I have never wanted to share my existence with anyone as thoroughly as I want to share it with you. I have never loved anyone as I love you. Please, my beloved, Rose Marion Tyler… Share your heart and mind with me for all time... and let me share mine with you."

The tears that she was holding at bay in the corners of her eyes streamed down her cheeks, as she nodded an emphatic yes. Rose knew that she was beaming like an idiot, but she didn't care. Everything she had ever wanted was sitting next to her holding her good hand to his cheek. She wiped away the tears with the gauze on her left forearm. It was then that her bracelet began to glisten and twinkle.

Rose stared at the chain in disbelief. "Tears? That's all it took?"

"That, and copious amounts of blood. It was partially activated when I was examining it in the Tardis a while ago."

"Oh…  _right_ … Thanks for cleaning it up for me."

"Anything for you my Rose…  _Oooo_ … that reminds me!" He reached down into a bag that he had brought with him into the hospital room, and produced a very industrial looking prosthetic hand. "I know it's a bit crude. I will fashion a perfectly synced bionic one for you soon, but I wanted to have something ready when you woke up. Two functional hands are a prerequisite for our line of work, you know."

"Cool! It's got sort of steampunk thing going on."

"Do you want to try it on?"

"Mmmm... Not right now… Will you just lay next to me for a while?" She was still recovering, after all.

"Oh, I suppose..." The lanky pinstriped man climbed up onto the hospital bed next to her right side. Careful not to get tangled in her IVs, he propped his head up on his elbow so that he could look at her. "Has anyone ever told you that you have the most perfectly formed philtrum?"

"I don't think anyone has ever told anyone that,  _ever._ " Rose giggled.

"It's true. It draws the eye from your full lips up to your nasal septum... Along your pert little nose... To the most lovely glabella I have ever seen..." He traced his finger along the trail as he described it.

"Woah there Casanova, I'm not sure I can handle such steamy dirty talk in my current state."

"I've always fancied this body as being strikingly similar to 'Casanova'." He waggled his eyebrows at her.

Rose sighed, filled with contentment. "Whatever you say, Doctor… I love you."

"I love you too." He tenderly nuzzled his forehead against her cheek.

...

A curious Ex-Time Agent peeked into the room to see the two of them curled up together. He was hoping to witness more action, but seeing the two people he cared most about in the world so obviously in love, made him happy enough… Maybe later there would something more physical and glowy happening, he chuckled, after Rose got the rest of her strength back.


	10. Dristalline Redux

"Alrighty, quick biochemistry slash physiology lesson: Oxytocin and vasopressin are the hormones responsible for social recognition, bonding, and trust in humans and Gallifreyans; as well as most mammalian species. These two very important chemicals are typically released during most physical contact, sex, stressful situations, and childbirth. For Gallifreyans, they are also released during positive mental contact."

Now… Humans tend to have more of these hormones in their system, on a day to day basis, than Gallifreyans. S'why you lot seem to fall in love so impulsively and irrationally. While my species tend to be very empathetic, we rarely fall in love beyond a level of mutual affection. Successful courting could easily take centuries. That being the case, most marriages on Gallifrey were arranged, and appreciation for one's partner was expected to grow over time. Full marital inter-cerebral bonding was not necessary, nor even common, between married couples. It was virtually unheard of, in fact."

Back to the chemicals... Even though it might be advantageous in certain situations, Time Lords are unable to direct their brain to release more oxytocin or vasopressin of their own accord… Otherwise, some of the more idiotic sods would probably just sit in their room all day making oxytocin, and accomplish nothing with their lives… Er... Never mind…  _No,_  oxytocin release must be achieved the old fashioned way, that is, unless two individuals are bonding."

In the deepest recesses of the mind, behind primitive mental barriers which even the simplest of organisms seem to possess, there is the subconscious… 'control panel'... Yes let's go with control panel of the hypothalamus. During bonding, all mental barriers are removed, leaving this 'control panel' exposed to mental presence of the other person. The other person can then initiate widespread production and release of oxytocin, thus causing the first person become irreversibly bound to them for the rest of their lives. Due to the vulnerability associated with such a bond, that last primitive mental barrier is very difficult to remove. It is impossible to breach without full permission."

Well… With the notable exception of a Gallifreyan woman giving birth… That barrier is naturally dropped immediately after childbirth. Newborn Gallifreyans will instinctively reach for their mother's mind and trigger the bonding, much the same way infants of other species root for milk… For loomed children, their parents would have had to manually drop their barriers to allow their baby to bond with them. Denying an infant its full parental bond was considered child abuse…"

Anyway. That is neither here nor there… The point is that parental bonding is usually the only type of bonding that a Time Lord experiences in their lifetime. Pair bonding or marital bonding was reserved exclusively for the soulmate type, true loves; usually repudiated to fairy stories and the great legendary romances. In those stories, the bonded pair is linked mentally at all times and can communicate telepathically over great distances. I don't know if that part is true or not, but I've always been curious."

So! On to the mechanics. Hypothetically, for a proper pair bond to work, or at least from what I've gathered, both individuals must enter each other's minds and activate the oxytocin release for each other simultaneously… Not all parallel telepathic connections are related to bonding, but bonding must occur through a parallel connection… A parallel connection is something that we haven't tried yet… Going into each other's minds at the same time, not just one or the other..."

"You mean cross the streams? You said crossing the streams was bad."

"No, I don't think I ever said that. As long as both parties can handle the cerebral pressure it's fine, common even. On Gallifrey, they used to do it all the…  _WAIT, what did you say_?!"

"Heh… Nothing, nevermind." Rose stuck her little pink tongue out from between her teeth.

"Not nothing!… You just quoted Ghostbusters, unprompted. Do you do that often? Why haven't I noticed that before?"  _Was Rose especially fond of Ghostbusters? Did she leave Bad Wolf that joke because it was a joke she often made? Was it meant to have been a signal, right from the start, that the paradox box wasn't a trap? A signal which I should have picked up on? Oh, my brain can be so stupid!_

"Probably because I only do it when you're getting carried away, prattling on about something that I don't completely understand. You're usually not paying attention to me while you do that anyway."  _Do I frequently 'prattle on'?_ He wondered. It was entirely possible in his current body.

"I always pay attention to you Rose Tyler... or at least I try to. I apologize if it doesn't always seem that way. Why Ghostbusters though? Don't get me wrong, Bill Murray is brilliant and all…"

"Not always Ghostbusters, ta! Sometimes it's Star Wars or Harry Potter or whatever feels most applicable to the situation. Why does it matter?" She bumped his shoulder with hers.

"I'll tell you someday, I promise…" He bumped her back playfully.

The two of them were relaxing in the library of the Tardis after being cleared for release from Torchwood. The institution, by way of Jack, had refused to let Rose leave until after she was completely healed and had undergone a certain amount of physical therapy with her new prosthetic. The Time Lord had been going mad with cabin fever, but refused to leave her side.  _Maybe,_ he  _may_  have been using the sonic to hurry her recovery along, but no one else needed to know that. It felt wonderful to be adrift in the Vortex again.

Per her request, the Doctor was going over all of the cultural and logistical details of pair bonding. Despite wanting to keep their engagement quiet, Rose was anxious to bond as soon as possible. He hoped that she wasn't using the prospect of bonding as a way to repress the immense loss she was experiencing. Every time he had asked her about it, she had promised him that was not the case. Rose asserted that she was simply ready to move on to the next chapter of her life, that this was not an impulse decision.

"So… Should we attempt the bonding today?" If she was attempting to seem casual about the suggestion, she was failing miserably. She was chewing her lip and winding a lock of golden hair around her finger.

The Doctor raked a hand through his own hair. "We could just try the parallel connection. We don't have to bond right away if you don't want…".

"I told you, I'm ready for this. My place is by your side, forever... Plus, wouldn't it be helpful in dangerous situations to be able to communicate with our minds?" Not an iota of hesitation was present in her voice, anxious anticipation maybe, but not hesitation.

"Yes, I suppose it could come in handy… I just don't want you to rush into anything until you fully grasp the implications… After we do this, neither of us will ever be satisfied with anyone else… ever. We will never be able to fall in love with anyone else. Even if one of us meets our untimely demise, no one else would be able to adequately fill the voids in the others heart(s) or mind." It was apparent that she was serious about bonding that very day. The Doctor searched her eyes once more to reassure himself that her intentions were pure. He had to be sure that he wasn't just projecting his own desires, to be sure that she was ready as well. As usual, her hazel eyes reflected ardor, bravery, and adoration. He sighed. If this was truly what she needed to move on from Canary Wharf, he would happily oblige. It was amazing how easily she could persuade him with just a flutter of her eyelashes.

"Doctor, there is no one that could ever replace you in my heart, anyway." Yep, there was that notorious eyelash flutter.

"Your forever could be several thousand years now… That's a long time to spend with one person." He had lived for hundreds of years and understood how long forever could be, but did she?

"I know, and this is what I want… Are you sure this is what  _you_  want?"  _Was she questioning his resolve_? He certainly was not trying to back out of this, he was merely verifying her comprehension of the consequences. What ever fear the Doctor may have had about sharing his mind with the pink and yellow human, had been snuffed out when she had tamed the emotional storm in his mind. His desire to be surrounded by her thoughts at all times had ultimately prevailed.

"I wouldn't have asked you if I weren't sure, Rose Tyler… But don't you want some sort of human marriage ceremony to accompany this whole thing?"

"No…" Her expression fell. Looking down at her fabricated hand, she sighed heavily. "Not since Mum can't be there. A full ceremony wouldn't feel right without her."

"I understand..." He took her hand. "But, you know Jack will be disappointed." He offered her a half-hearted smile. The mention of Jack started to perk her back up.

"I'm sure if we take him out to party afterwards and give him a pretty boutonniere, he'll get over it."

The Doctor snickered, when he imagined Jack flitting about as a bridesmaid. "Fair enough."

"So yeah... How do we go about this parallel connection?"

"Essentially, the same way you went into my mind, except that I will be pushing back. The main difference will be where we find ourselves when the connection is made. We will be in a neutral location, somewhere we both recognize, a shared memory. From there, both of us will be able to express images, feelings, or memories in the neural space."

"If we're in a neural space, how will we get to each other's 'control panels'?"

"Hmmm, it would probably be easier for me to show you how to get to the hypothalamus than to try to explain it." He winked.

"Now that's more like it!… A new adventure for Rose and the Doctor!"

"Not just a new adventure, the greatest adventure! Shall we adjourn to our room then?" He stood up from the sofa, and offered her his arm with a debonaire swagger. When she took his arm, he pulled her up into an embrace and a loving kiss. "Do you want to go pick out a dress from the Tardis wardrobe or anything, first?"

"Nah, s'ok." The Tardis hummed her disappointment after sending them both images of some of the choices available in her collection. "Don't worry old girl, I'll let you dress me when we go out with Jack afterwards."

On the surface, the concession placated his ship, but the Doctor could feel her buzzing away in the background with some other contribution to their bonding. She was not going to be excluded from this.

...

When they reached their bedroom, the Doctor saw what the Tardis had been up to. She had used flowers from the conservatory to create several lovely floral arrangements, and strewn them around the room. There were also rose petals spread across the bed. Had his bed gotten larger too? No matter.

"Ooooo... Pretty!" Rose skipped over to one of the bouquets, and inhaled its sweet aroma.

"Those are Dristalline Prim-Lilacs. I took a few samples back when we're there on our first 'date', after you fell asleep… Seems like ages ago, so much has happened since then. Time can be funny like that."

"Mm-hmm. I thought they looked sorta familiar."

"I wanted something to remember that place by. To remind me of that evening, no matter what happened afterward...  _I certainly hope our ship didn't use up all of them_..." He shot a mock scowl at the ceiling. The Tardis' response hum of _'who me?'_ , was not well very received but the Time Lord. And she quickly followed up with an image of several Prim-Lilac bushes growing untouched in the garden. "Good."

The Doctor could tell Rose was rolling her eyes, even though she was still examining the flowers. "Ugh!... If you aren't going to thank her for the flowers, I will... Thank you, dear girl!"

"Right, yeah, ok... Thank you, my old friend." He patted the wall affectionately and his ship hummed. Trying not seem over eager, he waited a few moments before following up with: "Now can we try the parallel connection?"

Rose pulled one of the lilacs out of the vase and slipped it behind her ear, before turning around. When she did, her wide eyes immediately traveled down to his trousers. "Whoa, hold up, this whole crossing streams thing is sexy to you isn't it?"

"Why do you say that?"

"You're glowing so brightly, I'm worried your trousers might combust."

He looked down for a second. It was true, he couldn't deny it. "Is it a problem that I find your mind sexy?"

"Not at all... I just want to understand what my bloke likes siz'all."

"Weeeeelll..." He rocked back on his heals with his hands in his pockets. "It was customary for tandem telepathic connection to come into play during Gallifreyan mating. If you're willing to try it sometime, you'll understand why pretty quickly... It's worth it, I assure you."

Rose narrowed her eyes micheviously. "I thought that Time Lords didn't have much sex? That's what the book said."

"Oh, I'm sure that the Council would love for other species to think that. They were overly concerned with our universal reputation as highbrow intellectuals... Er... Not that I had a plethora of sexual encounters during my tenure on Gallifrey, but the Counsel was notoriously stuffy about such things... I have to say, though, I never really understood lust or natural chemistry until I met you, Rose Tyler..."

She put her hands on her hips. "Are you gonna be able to make it through bonding without jumping me, Doctor?" He really wanted to put his own hands on her fantastically curvy hips, but he restrained himself.

He flopped down on the bed in a cloud of displaced rose petals. "It'll be hard."

"Pun intended?"

"Indeed." He cocked one eyebrow suggestively and patted the spot next to him on the mattress. She sat down and folded her legs under her. They exchanged a quick kiss and both raised their right hands to the other's left temple.

...

Dristalline! Rose recognized the location right away. She wasn't sure if it was the scent of the Prim-Lilacs that had brought them there over one of their other mutual memories, but it was perfect never the less. They were standing facing one another on the wide purple beach at sunset. The pink and orange clouds reflected off of the ocean, while the four moons hung lightly, patiently waiting for the sun to dip below the horizon. Scrawled in the sand were words of affection, written in intertwining Gallifreyan and English.

The Doctor was missing his usual pinstriped jacket and tie; instead, he had his oxford's sleeves rolled up to the elbows, the way he sometimes did when he repaired the Tardis. Behind those irresistibly sexy glasses, his expression was relaxed and inviting. Rose noticed that she was wearing a (decidedly shorter) version of the pink dress that she had worn when they confronted the Wire, complete with denim jacket.

"Hah! Again with the glasses, Rose?" He laughed.

"What do you mean?"

"In this type of connection, one can influence the perceived appearance of the other, based on preferred memories."

"You're saying you dressed me?" She straightened her skirts and raised an eyebrow. "The Wire, huh?"

He stepped forward so that he could cup her cheek in the palm of his hand. "You have no idea how badly I wanted you that day. After defeating the Wire, I spent the rest of that day memorizing every crease, every freckle, every pore, every part of your precious face. I was lucky that you didn't notice the glowing that day…" The Doctor withdrew his hand to tug on his ear; his eyes darted down to the sand and then back up to hers sheepishly. "Erm… Well… You didn't confront me about it, anyway."

"Oh, you sweet daft man… There was nothing I wanted more that day than to ruffle up that ridiculous pompadour-type hair style you were sporting, and snog you senseless."

"Mmm… I thought I could smell your arousal."

"Oi! You can smell my arousal? How is that fair?"

"Superior biology my dear… And wha'd'ya mean not fair? You can see mine light up!"

"I like that bit of superior biology." With that, she smacked him on the bum. Surprised, the Doctor jumped slightly before growling and pulling her into his arms. He captured her lips roughly then released them with a satisfying 'pop'. His pupils had begun to dilate with desire. Being mentally linked, Rose felt a rush of warmth race to her center. His longing was projected through their connection, and she had no doubt hers was echoing back again. If she let it, it could easily become an infinite feedback loop. _So that's what he meant about parallel connections being used in mating practices_. "Now Doctor, you said you weren't going to jump me before we bonded…. Bonding first, then mating."

"You want me to make an honest woman of you?" He grinned wolfishly and pulled her closer still.

"Yes, now, which way to that 'control panel'?" She pulled away before he could try anything else, but maintained their flirtatious eye contact.

He pointed off toward the horizon behind him. "The stretch of beach behind me leads into my mind. Just as the stretch of beach behind you leads deeper into your mind… You'll need to keep going in my direction, until you cannot go any further... We will still be able to hear each other, so let me know when you think are there."

"Got it!"

Rose imagined that cute blue Vespa scooter they had rode around on when they were in 1953, and when she turned around, it was by her side. Her pink helmet and sunglasses had also magically materialized. The Doctor raised his eyebrows and his jaw fell slack when she straddled the seat and revved up the motor. With a wink and a nod, she sped off down the beach kicking up purple sand behind her.

Dristalline morphed and bled into other memories belonging to the Doctor. Zeppelins, daleks, space stations, stars, and planets flew past in her rear view mirror, too many to count. She buzzed along on her scooter for what felt like nearly an hour. Finally, Rose found herself speeding along a dirt road through the copper hills surrounding the dome of the Citadel. Leaves of silver trees flickered in the light of the two suns.  _The edge of his mind must be close by_ , she thought to herself. She passed a large, prestigious looking school, which she assumed was the Academy he attended as a youth.

The road was winding to an end in front of cozy home halfway up one of the mountains in an immense range, which prevented her from going any further. She stepped off the scooter, and removed her helmet.  _Was this his childhood home?_  The door to the house was a dark blue with gold inlay, and stood out against the silver and copper foliage surround it. She tried the knob, but it was locked. Rose knocked on the door, unsure of what to expect… Instantly, a flash of lightning stuck in the distance and a cold wind tore through the mountain valley.

"Doctor? I think I am at the back of your mind, but there is a blue door here that won't open."

His many voices called over the crack of thunder. "I am going to try to let you in, Rose, but you need to let me past your final barrier too. Let me know if you can feel me trying to access this area."

She felt pressure at the most basic and vital part of her brain; the part that monitored her heart beat and helped her breath while she slept. Her brain's reflex impulse was to fight off whatever was trying to harm her. It was hard to repress such a primal response. Rose fell to her knees and clutched at her chest, the pressure in her head made her dizzy. She had no idea how to grant him access.

"Doctor… I don't… how do I let you pass?"

"Rose, we don't have to do this today. We can stop now."

"No, tell me what to do."

"Say my name, my  _true_  name, and the door will open on my side… But only you can tell me how to unlock yours."

The storm in the Doctor's mind was building again; rain and hail began pelting the trees around her. She could only imagine what sort of wonky things were happening to him in her mind, as she subconsciously tried to fight him off. Was there a word he could say as well? What word had opened her mind the most? What word held the most significance in her life? OH!  _Guh_ … Of course, she knew what he had to say.

"Run… That's all you have to say. Maybe try it with a northern drawl, yeah? Just to be sure?"

"Oh yes! You remember my name, right? So… on the count of four?"

"Ok, I remember… Count of four."

"One for the money… Two for the fun… Three to get ready… and Four to  _RUN!_ " The last word he said channeled his previous self, gruff accent and all. It reverberated deep in her thoughts.

Rose sung out the Doctor's name as loudly and clearly as she could, and the whole valley shook violently. Boulders tumbled down the mountainside. The blue door flung opened and she was engulfed in a light that scorched her senses.

It consumed her like wildfire. Love, raw unadulterated love for the Doctor burned through her, filling her with a bliss she didn't believe possible. She felt as though she were coming apart and being reassembled at the same time: better, brighter, more complete. Everything melted into liquid hot gold, and pooled somewhere between her legs.


	11. Timeless

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoyed the story. This one had a mind of its own, got a bit crazy, was still fun to write though. Remember to leave a comment! Thanks my friends!

Oxytocin was coursing through his veins at an alarming pace, primarily due to his elevated hearts rate. The double beat forced the hormone surging through his shuttering body. Was it possible to overdose on oxytocin? He probably should have figured that out before they had attempted to bond. Too late now. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, as they say.

The Doctor could still feel the active tie to Rose's mind. She was experiencing the same disorientating ecstasy that he was. There had to be a better way to describe the feeling; Part joy, part love, part arousal...Rapture? Ebullience? Euphoria?... He would be better able to define the sensation in his native language. Unfortunately, his massive intellect had been reduced to a quivering puddle of pudding, and human English was the best he could muster.

_**Oh... Rose...** _

Gradually, he became aware of his surroundings once more. He was laying on his back, on his bed, in the Tardis, clothes partially removed... And he was surprised to find that he was tugging relentlessly on his painfully swollen erection.  _What am I doing?_

He ordered himself to stop, but only managed to whimper and roll partially onto his side. Apparently, his mind was still too clouded to control very well. He had turned to face Rose, who was laying next to him, panting. Her eyes were screwed shut, her eyebrows were knitted together, and her good hand was fumbling desperately to unbutton her jeans. At last the fly gave way, and her hand slid down to the place where she was seeking access. A heady moan escaped her lips, when she was finally able to touch herself.

Watching Rose like this, only served to arouse the Doctor further. Soon, he gained enough command over his motor skills to divest himself of the rest of his clothes before continuing his ministrations... His breath was becoming ragged and guttural, but he couldn't take his eyes off of Rose... When her eyes fluttered open, they were glassy due to the dream like state that she was emerging from.

"Doctor..."

"Rose... I'm here."

As if suddenly freed from his lethargic mental shackles, he quickly shifted himself next to her. The Doctor made quick work of removing her clothes. He lowered his mouth to her breasts as a bead of sweat trailed down his cheek. Rose still had her fingers pressed firmly between her legs.

"Need you... Please." She cried.

Reluctantly, he parted his lips from her exposed chest, so that he could pull himself over her. His bright arousal was illuminating the skin of her smooth stomach, she looked breathtaking underneath him. Her spun gold hair was pooled around her head and her hooded eyes drew him closer. Right as he was about to kiss her, she brought her hand up from her folds to his temple.

The purple beach reappeared around them. Rose's pink dress and petticoats were hiked up to her waist as the Doctor pinned her to the sand. His own trousers were pushed down around his knees. The ocean surf rolled and crashed nearby. The projected vision was almost as beautiful as the reality of her naked body beneath him. Both were visible and both were equally tangible. He could feel both the sand and the sheets clenched in his fingers.

The Doctor bent down to kiss her swollen lips with all of the intensity of their bond. Through the link, Rose was pleading for more of him, for all of him. Taking himself in hand, he pressed forward and sunk into her. The gratification of their union was multiplied exponentially through their minds, both of them moaned in unison.

He moved within her, slowly at first. Each thrust, each caress, each motion was amplified since they could feel what the other was feeling in conjunction with themselves. Even the Doctor had never felt anything like it, the sensation was overwhelming. Rose must have felt it too, because her hips bucked and she cried out. One of her legs hooked tightly around his bum.  _Was she going to cum so quickly? If she came, would it mean that he would as well?_  He felt the knot building in her stomach, until it shattered into tremors throughout her body. Bound as they were, he had no choice but to shatter with her. The partially clothed fantasy and the fully unclothed reality collided as they reached their climax, in their bedroom and on the beach.

"Doctor..." She purred. "Please don't let this be over already."

His sideburns brushed her cheek when he husked in her ear. "Not even close... Two hearts, no refractory period."

"Mmmm... Good... Not finished with you yet."

Rose flipped them so she that was on top, with the intention of watching his expression as they continued to make love. After the last wave of her pleasure had dissipated, she began to rock on his (still extremely turgid) member. The Doctor ran his hands over her back and arse, before settling them on her hips. He held her firm, grinding her against himself. In their fantasy, she unclipped her bouffant and her hair fell down across her face. The stiff pink skirt made a rustling sound with each movement they made.

He took a deep cleansing breath. The Doctor intended to draw this out as long as he could, to make it last an eternity in its own right. He was finally living in the moment with the woman he loved.  _So this is what it feels like to be timeless..._

...

Much later, the couple collapsed back onto the sheets, thoroughly spent. The Doctor realized that his respiratory bypass had been doing most of his breathing for the last hour or so. His lips and throat were parched when he manually sucked in air, but he didn't care, he was bound the most incredible woman in the multiverse. Bound… Oooo... That reminded him. After making sure that no part of his body was still touching Rose, he tried communicating with her telepathically.

_**How do you feel, Rose Tyler?** _

_**Brilliant! That was… brilliant! You were… brilliant!... Sorry, I can't seem to think of any other adjectives right now, cos my brain is porridge. Ask me again later.** _

It had worked! He was elated.  _ **So, you're not up for another bout then?**_

"Oh my God, Doctor… You can't be serious! I think you've already extended my life by 100 years today!" She said out-loud before covering her face with a pillow.

He simply laughed, turned onto his side, and propped his head up with his arm. Between the regenerative glow and the sheen of sweat, her skin looked unbelievably radiant. "Then what would you like to do today, bride of mine?"

Her exposed skin bushed at the word bride, but he could tell that she was smiling even before she peeked out from under the pillow. "First, I want a gi-normous glass of water… Later, I want a shower… beyond that, I dunno."

"Well, I believe that if we are able to locate a suitable supernova, we should be able to contact Jackie… Let her know the good news."

"The last thing I want to do after shagging for three hours straight is go see my Mum, ta. I would like to try that, but maybe tomorrow, or the next day… or after the honeymoon." She beamed at him expectantly, batting her eyelashes.

"Honeymoon, eh? We have all of space and time, Rose Tyler… Where would you like to go?"

"Gosh, I dunno… porridge brain remember? Let's just stay here today, figure out somewhere to go tomorrow."

"My lazy little human."

"Oi! Didn't say I was gonna sleep, did I? Way too hopped up to sleep after all that… How 'bout you tell me one of your anecdotes telepathically? Ya know... Since we can do that now."

"Right! Yes, yes we can... Hmm" ** _..._** ** _Did I ever tell you about the time I had to relocate a massive carnivorous sandworm back to its native planet of Arrakis? Still not sure how it wound up on another planet to begin with._**

 _ **Heard that one.**  _Came her casual reply.

He raised his eyebrows. _**Ok… What about the time the Tardis was infested with Tribbles?**_

 _ **That never really happened. You had just been watching too much Star Trek and were having lucid dreams again. The Tardis told me.**  _The ship hummed in agreement.

 _ **Damn. They were such realistic little buggers too…**_ "Huh" _ **… Well, while we're on the topic of calling people out, I figured out how you won that blasted word game.**_

 _ **Unparalleled intelligence?**  _She suggested with a peck on his lips.

He narrowed his eyes. **_Well that... and the fact that you made that chain. So at some level, you knew what it would say._**

Rose sat up, cocking her head to one side. **_Are you implying that I cheated?_**

Sitting up beside her, he retorted.  ** _I'm implying that you had an unfair advantage._**

_**Are you challenging me to a rematch?** _

_**Maybe.**  _He winked. _**Lady's choice... Pick...Your... Weapon...**_

"Wii U, Super Smash Brothers, I call Pikachu!" Rose yelled before leaping off of the bed, giggling.

The Doctor chased her to the media room in a scramble of too long limbs and still exposed freckles. "Oh yes!... It is on..."


End file.
